Roe warns postal workers change is on the way
KINGSPORT — U.S. Rep. Phil Roe warned about 50 union letter carriers Monday night that change is coming in the U.S. Postal Service whether they like it or not.
“Things are going to change because we don’t have enough money to pay the bills,” Roe, R-Tenn., told a National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) group after eating dinner with them at the Renaissance Center.
A draft document put together by USPS management says mail volume declined 20 percent, and the Postal Service lost more than $20 billion in the four-year period through the 2010 fiscal year. USPS is projecting another $9 billion loss this year.
USPS management claims it is facing “the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy” and needs to reorganize . The Postal Service is urging Congress to allow five-day delivery and wants to eliminate 220,000 positions by 2015.
Roe also said reorganizing solutions need to come from within USPS. He told the letter carriers that Kingsport-based Eastman Chemical Co., for instance, decided on a 5 percent pay cut for employees when times were lean.
“The U.S. Postal Service has the same problem as the federal government — too much expense and not enough revenue,” Roe said.
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Now we are blaming it on unions. It is getting bad when we start begrudging public servants like postal workers and teachers for their salaries and benefits. I guess we want everyone to be a have not. Sad, but the ultra-rich have regular Americans fighting each other over what little they have while they laugh all the way to the bank. Are you a billionaire Greg? Why do you defend them?
The USPS is a prime example that unions can destroy an industry. Who in the non-union private sector has layoff protection ? Nobody that I know. They failed to see what technology was doing to how we communicated to each other. The UAW is another reason why the auto industry got in financial trouble, well, except Ford. The USPS, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac are costing the taxpayers billions. Thanks politicians !!!!