USPS ON THE
FRONT LINES
COMPILATION AND
COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
APRIL 22, 2020
THE COVID-19
CRISIS HAS ACCELERATED A PATTERN OF GENERAL DECLINE IN BUSINESS FOR THE USPS.
THE POST OFFICE IS NOT GOVERNMENT FUNDED. THEY OPERATE AS A GOVERNMENT
FUNCTION, GUARANTEED IN THE CONSTITUTION, BUT THEY MUST MAKE ENOUGH MONEY IN
DAILY BUSINESS TO BREAK EVEN. THAT IS A CHANGE THAT CAME ABOUT IN 1970 UNDER
THE POSTAL REORGANIZATION ACT, AS PART OF THE DOWNSIZING OF THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT WHICH REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN PUSHING FOR MANY YEARS NOW. THE AMERICAN
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS ANOTHER VICTIM OF THAT SORT OF DEFUNDING AS WELL. ANYTHING
THAT HAS TO DO WITH QUALITY OF LIFE IS LIKELY TO BE AFFECTED. THINGS WHICH CAN’T
BE SOLD FOR A PROFIT ARE CONSIDERED BY TOO MANY REPUBLICANS TO BE WORTHLESS. ART,
POETRY AND MUSIC? ALL OF THOSE ARE WORTHLESS.
SO, AFTER IT
COLLECTS AND COUNTS THE DAILY INCOME, THE PO IS LEGALLY REQUIRED TO PREPAY FOR
THEIR WORKERS PENSION FUND. OUT OF WHAT IS LEFT OVER THEY HAVE TO FINANCE
OVERHEAD EXPENSES. THE VERY WORTHWHILE ORGANIZATION HAS BEEN SLOWLY GOING
DOWNHILL FOR YEARS FINANCIALLY, AND NOW SINCE THE COVID-19 VIRUS IS CAUSING THE
PUBLIC TO STAY AWAY IN LARGE NUMBERS, THEIR INCOME IS DRYING UP. THE DEMS ARE
TRYING TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR THEM, BEYOND LOANS THAT IS, WHILE REPUBLICANS ARE
RESISTING, ESPECIALLY IN THE CASE OF PRESIDENT D. J. TRUMP.
THIS IS A VERY
FAMILIAR STORY, BUT THE POST OFFICE IS POSSIBLY GOING TO GO BANKRUPT WITHIN
MONTHS THIS TIME. WE SHOULD QUESTION WHAT THE PURPOSE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
IS. SURELY IT ISN’T TO LET OUR COUNTRY DEGENERATE INTO A CONDITION THAT IS NO
LONGER A CIVILIZATION.
AFTER THE
MIAMIHERALD.COM ARTICLE, WATCH BERNIE SANDERS’ DISCUSSION VIDEO BETWEEN
EMPLOYEES OF THE USPS AND OTHER SPECIALISTS WHICH IS PLACED BELOW. THE POSTAL
SERVICE WORKERS ARE TRULY IN A PANIC OVER THE FINANCIAL SHORTFALL, AND IT ISN’T
A CASE OF HYSTERIA. IT’S A TRUE NEED FOR GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE FUNCTIONING TO
CONTINUE TO WORK IN A WAY THAT PROVIDES FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD. NOT HAVING SCHOOLS,
LIBRARIES, GOOD MEANS OF COMMUNICATION, ROADS AND BRIDGES MAKES A SMOOTHLY
WORKING LIFE IMPOSSIBLE. TO DENY THAT IS JUST ANOTHER CASE OF TRUMPIAN INCOMPETENCE.
‘Postal Service
will not survive the summer.’ Lawmakers warn it could go bankrupt
BY MADDIE
CAPRON
MARCH 24, 2020 04:05 PM, UPDATED MARCH 24, 2020 04:05 PM
The U.S. Postal
Service could be in jeopardy as the coronavirus spreads, lawmakers say.
Rep. Carolyn B.
Maloney and Rep. Gerry Connolly said in a statement that the Postal
Service needs “urgent help” amid the coronavirus pandemic, or it could shut
down as early as June.
“Based on a
number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail
across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive
the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House,” the
statement said. “Every community in America relies on the Postal Service to
deliver vital goods and services, including life-saving medications.”
Oversight
Committee
✔
@OversightDems
Chairwoman
@RepMaloney & Chair @GerryConnolly want @senatemajldr to pass EMERGENCY
FUNDING to save @USPS from bankruptcy. We must prioritize life-saving, medical
deliveries so our nation can fight the #CoronavirusPandemic.
Read their
letter: https://bit.ly/3dq9Nuf
View image on
Twitter
49
1:32 PM - Mar
24, 2020
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
51 people are
talking about this
#READLOCAL
House Democrats
introduced a stimulus package that included emergency funds to save the Postal
Service from “imminent bankruptcy,” according to the news release.
The Take
Responsibility for Workers and Families Act would provide a $25 billion
emergency appropriation, eliminate the Postal Service’s current debt and
require it to prioritize medical deliveries, according to the release.
Shutting down
the Postal Service would be detrimental in several areas, according to the
release.
It could mean
important prescription drugs are delayed or not delivered. Last year, more than
one billion shipments of prescription drugs were fulfilled by the Postal
Service, according to the news release.
Where people
are under shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders, many rely on getting
essentials delivered through the Postal Service.
Additionally,
in an election year, many people rely on mail-in voting methods to cast a vote.
More than 25% of votes in recent elections were distributed through the U.S.
mail, according to the news release.
As of Tuesday,
there were nearly 51,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., according
to data from Johns Hopkins. As of last week, at least 20 postal workers had
tested positive for COVID-19, the New York Times reported.
SENATOR BERNIE
SANDERS HOSTS A DISCUSSION OF THE CURRENT CRISIS AT THE US POSTAL SERVICE.
SAVE THE POSTAL
SERVICE (7PM ET)
17,363 views • Streamed
live 19 hours ago [April 22, 2020]
Ups 1.5K
Downs 43
Bernie Sanders 398K subscribers
SAVE THE POSTAL
SERVICE: During this public health emergency and horrific pandemic, the Postal
Service is needed now more than ever. Join our virtual town hall with the
leaders of the country’s major postal unions on how we must act to save the
postal system:
BURLINGTON, Vt.
– Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday will host a virtual town hall with the leaders
of the country’s major postal unions on how the federal government can
act to save the postal system.
Sanders will be
joined by American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein, National
Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric V. Rolando, National
Postal Mail Handlers Union President Paul V. Hogrogian, and Legislative
and Political Director for the American Postal Workers Union Judy Beard.
Without an
infusion of emergency funding, the Postmaster General has estimated that the
Postal Service, the most popular government agency in America, will run out of
cash by September 30th. The Postal Service's Board of Governors, composed
of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats, unanimously recommended that Congress pass
$75 billion in emergency funding to rescue the Postal Service, but the
Trump Administration is opposed to this much needed relief.
Category News & Politics
HERE ARE SOME
VERY INTERESTING BITS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THAT FAMILIAR INSTITUTION, THE POST
OFFICE.
United States
Postal Service
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
The United
States Postal Service (USPS; also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or
Postal Service) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United
States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United
States, including its insular areas and associated states. It is one of the few
government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
The USPS traces
its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, when Benjamin
Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department
was created in 1792 with the passage of the Postal Service Act. It was elevated
to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and was transformed by the Postal Reorganization
Act of 1970 into the United States Postal Service as an independent agency.[4]
Since the early 1980s, many direct tax subsidies to the USPS (with the
exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters)
have been reduced or eliminated.[5]
The USPS, as of
2019, has 469,934 career employees and 136,174 non-career employees. The Postal
Service is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography,
at uniform price and quality. The Post Office has exclusive access[6] to letter
boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United
States, but now has to compete against private package delivery services, such
as United Parcel Service, FedEx, and Amazon.[7]
History
Further
information: United States Post Office Department and Postage stamps and postal
history of the United States
On March 18,
1970, postal workers in New York City—upset over low wages and poor working
conditions, and emboldened by the Civil Rights Movement—organized a strike
against the United States government. The strike initially involved postal
workers in only New York City, but it eventually gained support of over 210,000
United States Post Office Department workers across the nation.[8] While the
strike ended without any concessions from the Federal government, it did
ultimately allow for postal worker unions and the government to negotiate a
contract which gave the unions most of what they wanted, as well as the signing
of the Postal Reorganization Act by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970.
The Act replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with a new federal
agency, the United States Postal Service,[9] and took effect on July 1,
1971.[10]
Current
operations
USPS service
delivery truck
The United
States Postal Service employs 633,188 workers, making it the third-largest
civilian employer in the United States behind the federal government and
Walmart.[11] In a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Court noted: "Each
day, according to the Government's submissions here, the United States Postal
Service delivers some 660 million pieces of mail to as many as 142 million
delivery points."[12] As of 2017, the USPS operates 30,825 post offices
and locations in the U.S., and delivers 149.5 billion pieces of mail
annually.[13]
The USPS
operates one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world, with an
estimated 227,896 vehicles,[13] the majority of which are the easily identified
Chevrolet/Grumman LLV (long-life vehicle), and the newer Ford/Utilimaster FFV
(flex-fuel vehicle), originally also referred to as the CRV (carrier route
vehicle). It is by geography and volume the globe's largest postal system,
delivering 47% of the world's mail.[13] For every penny increase in the
national average price of gasoline, the USPS spends an extra US$8 million per
year to fuel its fleet.[14]
. . . . In February 2013, the Postal Service
announced that on Saturdays it would only deliver packages, mail-order
medicines, Priority Mail, and Express Mail, effective August 10, 2013.[19][20] However,
this change was reversed by federal law in the Consolidated and Further
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013.[21] They now deliver packages on
Sunday—only for Amazon.com — meaning that carriers make parcel deliveries seven
days a week.[22] During the four weeks preceding Christmas since 2013, packages
from all mail classes and senders were delivered on Sunday in some areas.[23]
Parcels are
also delivered on holidays, with the exception of Thanksgiving and
Christmas.[24]
The period
between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the busiest time of the year for the USPS
with the agency delivering a projected 900 million packages during this period
in 2018.[25]
In May 2019,
the Postal Service announced that it will be releasing a pilot of self-driving
trucks to haul mail across the U.S.. The 18-wheelers were developed by startup
company, TuSimple. The pilot will last two weeks, making five total round trips
to cities across the country.[26]
. . . .
Response to
COVID-19 crisis
USPS workers
are considered Essential Employees of the Federal Government. As of April 2,
2020 the USPS has confirmed 259 employees have tested positive for the
coronavirus.[29] On April 17, 2020, NALC President Fredric V. Rolando issued a
statement with a few other detailed numbers: Over 900 Postal Employees have
tested positive and another 600 are presumed to be positive; Over 30 (which
includes 9 city letter carriers) have passed away due to the virus; Over 8000
are under quarantine.[30].
. . . . The USPS is often mistaken for a
government-owned corporation (e.g., Amtrak) because it operates much like a
business. It is, however, an "establishment of the executive branch of the
Government of the United States", (39 U.S.C. § 201) as it is controlled by
presidential appointees and the postmaster general. As a government agency, it
has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain
powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an
exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. Indeed, in
2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision “The Postal Service
is not subject to antitrust liability. In both form and function, it is not a
separate antitrust person from the United States but is part of the Government,
and so is not controlled by the antitrust laws.” Sherman Antitrust Act.[74]
Legal basis and
rationale
Article I,
section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution grants Congress the power
to establish post offices and post roads,[80] which has been interpreted as a
de facto Congressional monopoly over the delivery of first-class residential
mail—which has been defined as non-urgent residential letters (not packages).
Accordingly, no other system for delivering first-class residential mail—public
or private—has been tolerated, absent Congress's consent.[citation needed]
The mission of
the Postal Service is to provide the American public with trusted universal
postal service. While not explicitly defined, the Postal Service's universal
service obligation (USO) is broadly outlined in statute and includes multiple
dimensions: geographic scope, range of products, access to services and
facilities, delivery frequency, affordable and uniform pricing, service
quality, and security of the mail. While other carriers may claim to
voluntarily provide delivery on a broad basis, the Postal Service is the only
carrier with a legal obligation to provide all the various aspects of universal
service.[81]
**** ****
**** ****
No comments:
Post a Comment