Press Release
Letter Carriers’ union President Fredric V. Rolando urged Congress today to ensure that structural changes being made in U.S. Postal Service operations due to the nation’s current economic crisis do not cause more harm than good over the long term to its mission of delivering mail to the American people.
Rolando, who assumed the presidency of the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO) on July 4 following the retirement of past President William H. Young, cited a current study by the Postal Service of reducing mail delivery to five days a week, and also its ongoing postal branch and station optimization program.
“Down-sizing to meet depression-level demand without considering the long-term impacts on the ability of the Postal Service to meet new demands when the economy recovers, would be short-sighted,” Rolando told a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia.
“Short-term savings that undermine the Postal Service’s capacity to offer new services and to take advantage of future growth opportunities such as Vote by Mail, e-commerce deliveries, and other potential uses of our incomparable delivery network would be self-defeating,” Rolando added.
Rolando emphasized the NALC’s long history of working with postal management to improve efficiency and adjust to change, including a new dispute resolution process, health and safety initiatives, and the automatic sequencing of letter mail. He noted that the union and management are currently engaged in a joint process to adjust delivery routes in response to the steep decline in mail volume resulting from the current economic crisis.
Rolando said the Postal Service and Congress must look ahead to new ways of boosting postal revenue, using its unmatched delivery network to expand a whole range of valuable services, including everything from Vote by Mail elections to a recent Congressional proposal to use letter carriers to conduct the next Census.
“That is why we must be careful with branch and station consolidations and reject drastic proposals like the elimination of Saturday delivery,” Rolando added. “The cost of lost opportunities from service cuts and other operational changes must be recognized.”
He said Congress can help in the short term by reforming the way the Postal Service prefunds its future retiree health benefits and noted that the current prefunding provisions are both “unaffordable and unreasonable,” costing the Service billions of dollars annually.
“Overhauling the prefunding policy and reforming the OPM’s (Office of Personnel Management) policies with respect to the Postal Service must be a part of this reform if the Postal Service is to continue to provide affordable, universal postal service,” the postal union leader concluded.
The NALC represents active and retired city delivery letter carriers of the U.S. Postal Service in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions.
In some respect, we are all in this together, this
great Organization, in the first time in its History has to layoff workers, “on our watch”, Management or Craft we all failed to forsee this and place her in line for todays needs and services, “all of us,” I may loose my Job today but the business is dieing the boat is filling with water while your laughing at your fellow shipmate the water is at your knee’s, are you perpared, I am!
you are right zippy, Rolando needs to stand tall and carry a big stick! The carriers have sacraficed enough with route eliminations. It is time for management to cut from the top. Rolando should demand this before cutting anymore carriers! Cutting delivery to 5 days a week will only keep management from having to get rid of their own. Lets see what you are made of Rolando!
I clean the offices, and I’ll tell you; managers are dirty bumms. They stab each other, their egos are inflated, and their slobs. Personally I think there is way too many of them twiddling their thumbs, or working on silly assignments. Out of the 20 or so here, I beleive the service could get by with only 3 of them. REALLY
Rolando must be in bed with Potter and the USPS. If he is not advocating LOUDLY to cut these do nothing jobs, then I would recommend, sadly, to get out of the NALC. Five day delivery is a tactic to preserve management jobs. I don’t understand why Rolando can’t see this. If we stay six days per week, they will have to cut management. That is the bottom line.
Never will management be cut. Too important to the mission. But we are accepting resumes for our new postion of Vice President of Shafting Carriers.
godamnit Fred, it’s bad enough that Bill “Palin” Young cut and ran, but can’t you get the words “management must be cut” out of your mouth? The reason they want five day delivery is TO PRESERVE MANAGEMENT JOBS!!!!!!!! Get with the program, Fred. GM, Ford, and the rest did it. We must too-TELL THEM TO CUT MANAGEMENT!!!
Why does everyone think if we eliminate Saturday delivery we could never start it again if demand increased? And who do they think is waiting to deliver bulk and 2nd class mail ( we have a lock on 1st class) on Saturday only? That’s a ridiculous idea- a dumb scare tactic
jimmy the little g must be a little peep who never delivered mail, obviously. I wonder what it does at work.
Jimmy,
He must be one of those lazy asses you referred to, why else would he
Get so defensive. There see so many slugs in the postal service, all cloned from the lazy ass shop stewards.
So jimmy the g thinks carriers are lazy? hmmmmm Lets see your fat ass get out of your cubicle and walk to the vending machine. I bet your out of breath by the time you get there, after all it is all the way down the hall!! I bet you never walked 8 miles in your life, never less in one 8 hour shift. So the next time you use the word LAZY, look in the mirror at your fat ass. You must be management thats all I can say.
OKAY, MR PRESIDENT… TELL US SOMETHING WE DON’T KNOW.. 5 DAY DELIVERY IS A MUST… YOU LAZY CARRIERS NEED TO ACCEPT THAT FACT!!!!
hahahaahhaahahahahahahahaha