Congressman Dennis Ross, the new chairman of the House subcommittee that over sees the US Postal Service, had this to say about the workshare discount litigation we reported on earlier today:

Update: the Congressman responded to our post a few minutes later:

prompting this response:

What do you think? As always, you can comment here, or join the conversation on Twitter…

The US Postal Service claims the Postal Regulatory Commission overstepped its authority in September when it issued an “Order Adopting Analytical Principles Regarding Workshare Discount Methodology“, which it intended to use as a framework for assessing the validity of proposed worksharing discounts. The USPS appealed the PRC’s action to the DC Appeals Court, and has filed its initial brief: Read the rest of this entry »

Instead of accepting a change of address, the Tariffville Post Office is filing one.

At the direction of the landlord, the Post Office was evacuated today after the discovery of structural damage in the facility. No one was injured but there was still no re-entry into that building, located at 39 Main Street, by the close of business today.

Read the rest of this entry »

We told you on Friday that freshman Congressman Dennis Ross, the new chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the US Postal Service, doesn’t have a very high opinion of labor unions. Yesterday he made it clear that he doesn’t think public sector workers should be allowed to organize at all:

Notwithstanding his apparent nostalgia for the Great Depression, the Congressman finds a solid tea-bagger style argument against unions: they aren’t in the Constitution!

… which makes you wonder which non-Constitutional organization will be next! The AAA? The Book of the Month Club? Come to think of it, is the Republican Party mentioned in the Constitution? Hmmm…

And if public sector workers defy the politicians? There’s always the “air traffic controller solution”.

Postal and other federal workers may be in for an interesting two years. They may also want to ponder what will happen to their livelihoods if the GOP gains more power in 2012.

More post office closings from around the country… Read the rest of this entry »

The National Association of Postmasters of the United States have asked the PRC to open a docket on the USPS’s “aggressive nationwide effort to close rural and small town post offices.”:

February 11, 2011

Honorable Ruth Goldway
Chairman, Postal Regulatory Commission
901 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.

Dear Chairman Goldway:

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has commenced an aggressive nationwide effort to close rural and small town post office. In the view of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States’ Committee on Post Office Preservation, USPS efforts may violate §101(b) of Title 39, United States Code. In addition, the Postal Service’s plan jeopardizes every small and rural Post Office in the nation. Therefore, as a rural postal customer and as chairman of the Post Office Protection Committee, I respectfully request that the Postal Regulatory Commission review the USPS’ plans to determine if the Postal Service’s efforts are in statutory “noncompliance”; if so, to direct the Postal Service to cease and desist from such unlawful actions and impose appropriate sanctions.

In January, the Postal Service announced an initiative to close more than 2,000 “unprofitable” Post Offices around the nation. Local Post Office- losing decision-makers have confirmed the underlying reasoning for the closures. A February 5, 2011, Washington Post article quoted a Virginia manager of postal operations as stating: “It’s all about the bottom line, Voorhees [manager of postal operations] said.” Moreover, at infrequently-held community meetings, the Postal Service strives to defend its discriminatory decision to close a rural or small town Post Office by claiming that the Post Office of the adversely-impacted community is simply not making enough money.

As the Commission knows, §101(b) specifically prohibits the closing or consolidation of a Post Office “solely for operating at a deficit.” Moreover, §101(b) provides that small communities and rural America be provided with “a maximum degree of effective and regular mail service to small towns, communities and rural areas where post offices are not self-sustaining.”

Madame Chair, I believe that Post Offices provide a fundamental social benefit, particularly to communities not enveloped by urbanization or suburbanization. Regrettably, Postal executives are dismissive of the tremendous asset they have in rural and small town Post Offices, and trivialize the distance between Post Offices in those areas and how that distance impacts rural postal customers. Furthermore, Postal executives choose to ignore the strong the citizen mailers’ support of Post Offices, evidenced by a less-than-year-old Gallup Poll, which found that 86 percent of Americans oppose Post Office closures. Consequently, please consider opening a docket on this issue.

Thank you for your consideration and attention.

Sincerely,

Keva Richardson
Co-Chair, Post Office Preservation Committee
Keva Richardson, Co-Chair
Post Office Preservation Committee
National Association of Postmasters of the United States
2372 Waubonsie Avenue
Thurman, IA 51654

From Postcom:

Click here to download this week’s podcast, or click the play button below to listen online. [audio:http://postcom.org/postalweek/02.18.11.twip.mp3]
Previous podcasts in the series are at thisweekinpostal.info.

As the 112th Congress gets underway, the NALC’s legislative goals remain firm. We continue to seek legislation that allows the U.S. Postal Service to use the pension surpluses in both the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to fully fund the Service’s retiree health benefit account. We are asking Congress to repeal the burdensome mandate included in the 2006 postal reform bill that requires the USPS to pre-fund that retiree health benefit account to the tune of $5.5 billion a year—an onerous obligation not shared by any other corporation or government agency. And we continue to push for legislation that requires the continuation of six-day mail delivery service.

On Feb. 15, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee—the committee that has oversight of the Postal Service—introduced S. 353, the Postal Service Improvements Act of 2011. Essentially, this is the same bill she brought forward last year, a measure expired at the end of 2010.

Some of Collins’ provisions in S. 353 mirror many of the NALC’s legislative objectives. However, the bill also includes a number of provisions that the union cannot support.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve seen some pretty hysterical letters to the editor complaining about the way immigrants are supposedly treated SO much better than native born Americans, but this one takes the cake- this item was actually written by someone on the “staff of the Richmond Times Dispatch”:

A friend calls to our attention one of the odder policies at work across the nation.

If you want to rent a post office box, you must provide two forms of identification. The Postal Service will accept several kinds, from a driver’s license to a mortgage to a university or business ID card. And it will take an alien registration card or a certificate of naturalization. But not a birth certificate.

Got that? If you’re a legal resident alien and have the papers to prove it, the Postal Service will accept them. But if you’re a born-in-the-U.S.A. citizen and have the papers to prove it — well, tough luck, kiddo. In the Postal poker game, an alien registration card beats a birth certificate every time. There’s something seriously wrong with this picture.

Yes, there is definitely something wrong with this picture, but it’s not what the newspaper thinks. It apparently never dawned on these clever folks that a birth certificate doesn’t actually provide any information the US Postal Service is interested in. First of all, it doesn’t prove your identity- anyone can get a copy of a birth certificate. (Which of course also means that the “friend’s” precious piece of paper does not prove he’s a citizen!) Secondly, it has no information about where you live.

That’s why the USPS, as a commenter pointed out to the paper, requires two forms of identification, “One with your photo, and one with your current physical address”. An alien registration card, along with many other forms of ID, provides both. The newspaper might just as well have claimed that the USPS discriminates against people who read books- it won’t accept your library card either!

What I’m curious about though, is this “friend” of the newspaper who informed on this shocking practice- what sort of person goes around with a copy of his birth certificate in his pocket, but no drivers license? Given how proud he is of his origin, you’d think he’d have a passport, too- and maybe a firearms ID card. Makes you wonder if the “friend” is really a citizen at all, doesn’t it??

via Postal disservice | Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Freshman Congressman Dennis Ross, the Disney World lawyer who now chairs the subcommittee that oversees the USPS said in a tweet last night that he plans to set up a web site to gather information from “the man or woman on the street” about improving service and cutting costs. But a previous tweet suggest he might be a bit selective in deciding which men and women he actually listens to…

What Ross is referring to is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in the state. It makes you wonder how long it will be before Ross suggests something similar for postal workers.