I cannot believe this!

[Kevy Baby]

I know most people here won't care all that much, but I had to share.

(I have copied the text from the latest Printing Industries newsletter, but I verified that the information is correct. You can find the letter on the APWU web site. Emphasis below is mine.)

The President of the American Postal Workers Union has written an “open letter” to the Postmaster General telling him how to solve the Postal Service’s problems. It should come as no surprise that he is against solutions involving reducing the hours or numbers of the workforce and against “work-sharing” arrangements where mailers get a discount for presorts since his members should be doing that work (at government rates and benefits).

Their solution is for the Postmaster General to realize that the USPS has a monopoly and should take advantage of it. "So what if first class mail is a dollar, the customers will have to pay it because we’re the only postal service that they have." Wrong—the reality is that first class volume is being eaten by orders placed online and bills submitted and paid the same way. Standard class is very cost sensitive, with clients always on the watch for ways to narrow the mail list. A few dollars more and promotional printing will be drastically cut back or eliminated.

Wow

Just, wow.

Never mind the fact that USPS employees have the highest worker's comp claim rate in the country: four-to-five time the national average!

[BDBopper]

Morons!

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

The electric companies did it
Big Oil did it.

Guy needs to be strung up.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Someone Else: Fully Loaded

A few dollars more and promotional printing will be drastically cut back or eliminated.

I know it would hit you where you live, Kevy, but if it spelled the end of unwanted mail I am willing to pay $2 per piece of mail I send (which is maybe a half dozen pieces a year).

[BarTopDancer]

That is kinda like the head of FSW (I think) saying that the "rinkside view" will continue because those who hate it still want to watch the games and will suck it up and watch with said view.

[cirquelover]

I certainly wouldn't be sending Christmas cards out anymore!

Can you imagine the repercussions this guy is going to face for those remarks!

[JWBear]

I'm sorry, but to me this is a non-issue. Mr Burrus is not in control of the USPS, and has no say in its operation.

Now if the Postmaster General had made this suggestion, I could see your outrage.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by JWBear

I'm sorry, but to me this is a non-issue. Mr Burrus is not in control of the USPS, and has no say in its operation.

Now if the Postmaster General had made this suggestion, I could see your outrage.

While it is definitely not one of the major issues facing society today (and yes, it probably affects me more than anyone else here on LoT), I still think that idiocy such as this needs to be pointed out.

And while Burrus is not in control of the USPS, as head of the Postal Union, he DOES have an impact on the bottom line of the USPS.

[CoasterMatt]

Hey Kevy,

My father is a retired Postal worker (he got out after 35 years as a clerk) and even when he was working there, the USPS itself was talking about pricing that would be very similiar to what Mr. Burrus mentioned - according to the sheet my dad provided me, in 1991 they even suggested a radical price shift that would have put first class mail at about $2.00, and altered 'bulk rate' dramatically as well.

The APWU and the USPS management have BOTH offered suggestions that seem to have been thought of outside of the bounds of reality and the marketplace.