APWU locals and state organizations are responding enthusiastically to the call to lobby their senators during the congressional recess, which began April 2 and ends April 13. In addition to rallies and meetings with senators during the break, locals will conduct informational leafleting at post offices around the country on Tax Day, April 17. The APWU is being joined in both activities by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU).
Hundreds of APWU and Mail Handler locals have received fliers and are organizing to rally support for amendments to the Senate’s 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which is expected to come up for debate soon after the Senate returns to Washington DC on April 16. With time getting short, APWU President Cliff Guffey is urging all APWU members to get involved.
“As it’s currently written, the bill will not prevent the Postal Service from degrading service standards or closing thousands of post offices and hundreds of mail processing centers around the country,” Guffey said.
The APWU and the Mail Handlers Union are involved in an all-out push to amend the Senate bill to maintain current service standards, keep post offices and mail processing centers open, and fix the Postal Service’s finances without drastic cuts in cutting service.
A moratorium on post office closing and mail processing center consolidations is set to expire May 15, and postal officials have indicated that they intend to proceed with plans to dismantle the network unless Congress acts before then.
Locals that haven’t done so already should download an April Actions Press Kit. The kit includes a sample press release, a fact sheet about the Postal Service, tips for working with the media, and news clips about the Postal Service’s “crisis.”
Locals are also asked to send photos of the events to the APWU Communications Department. Photos may be sent via e-mail to photos@apwu.org. Please include a description for each photo, including when and where it was taken, and identifying any elected officials shown.
Someone please check my math. Last time I checked there were 300 million people in the United States. Assuming 2.5 children per house hold that would be roughly (two parents plus 2.5 children) 4.5 divided by 300 million equals 66.6 million addresses. OK assuming that is correct let’s just suppose that piece of BBM (junk mail ) is delivered for 10 cents times 66.6 million addresses since The Post Office delivers to every address in the United States so one delivery a week would equal 666 million cents for that one day for that one piece of mail. If you extrapolate the numbers out to a six day delivery and then to one year’s time you get roughly 1.9 billion. Now anyone with common sense will go to the USPS website and see what the government body charges its customers for a wide assortment of mail. The USPS charges way more than 10 cents to ship mail.
The fact that first class letters are going down in volume is a red herring argument. All intelligent marketers know that BBM (advertising mail) provides the absolute best value. That is why you see several pieces of such mail in your mail box each day. Multiply each piece you get in your mail box by the numbers above and you will get a true picture of what a CASH COW the Post Office really is.
That might be why the Post Office has survived so long with such bad management. If attorneys were let loose and some CFRs were enforced most of these managers would be gone.
Think about this you small business owners. How much do you think FedEx or UPS will charge for the same item to be shipped? Furthermore, your advertising budget will have to go up. In addition your sales are going to go down because you’re not going to effectively reach the same customers. For non- profits it’s the same deal. Can you imagine the economic repercussions? Who ever thought of this plan is trying to sink our nation.
Don’t you just love a Government Body that spits out non-GAP accounting numbers that equate to horse crap accounting and decide to make decisions to key pivotal foundations of our economic engine based on non-GAP (generally accepted accounting practices). I think that’s called fraud or Enron accounting whichever you prefer.
Wow where is the common sense in this equation. I think it is in the fat wallets of some political supporters. That is really too bad because we could use the money the Post office generates to shore up social security or pay down the national debt. Instead it will now go to some fat cats in the private sector.
I think someone should go to jail on this one or at least get water boarded until the truth comes out.
What year did going from a service to a business change?
APWU step up and buy the postal service. You claim that you know how to run a business better than the Postal service. Prove it! Contract with the mail handlers and carriers and Naps. yup we will all work for the APWU.
Like congress is going to do anything then.