Repealing a provision of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act is “so critical to the welfare of the Postal Service” that it should be the exclusive focus of a report to the president and Congress on the effectiveness of the law, the APWU wrote to the Postal Regulatory Commission on Feb. 1. The provision, which requires the Postal Service to pre-fund health benefits, costs the Postal Service more than $5 billion annually and has driven the USPS to the brink of insolvency.
These payments are “unsustainable, inconsistent with the provision of universal service at fair and reasonable rates, and inconsistent with the operation of the Postal Service in an efficient and businesslike manner,” the union’s counsel wrote [PDF] on behalf of the APWU.
There is a “broad consensus among postal industry stakeholders that the most urgent need” for reform of the PAEA is the pre-funding mandate. No other private company or government agency is forced to bear such a burden.
Of almost equal importance – because of the practical link to the pre-funding issue – is the need to provide the USPS access to the substantial amounts it has overpaid into its pension funds, the union said. The APWU urged the commission to ask Congress to grant the Postal Service access to overpayments to the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. Three independent actuarial studies have confirmed the USPS has a surplus of between $50 billion and $75 billion in its CSRS pension. FERS overpayments are estimated at $6 billion to $7 billion.
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) requires the commission to deliver a report to the president and Congress evaluating the law and to suggest legislative measures to improve its effectiveness. The union’s recommendations follow a public forum held by the PRC on Jan. 11 to provide postal industry stakeholders, including the APWU, the opportunity to comment informally.
I have a new Class action Complaint Reckless disregard Claim1) When the Agency refused to properly train their medical unit and management personnel regarding their obligations under the Rehabilitation Act; as instructed to do so in EEOC Appeal No. 0720080044, (See, Grayson v. USPS, dated 1/6/2009), and Claim 2) By mandating that certain employee’s submit to “Forensic Psychiatric Evaluations” (before allowing these employee’s to return to work). Complainant’s contentions are that these Forensic Psychiatric Evaluations are not shown to be job-related and consistent with the business necessity of the Agency, thus such evaluations are improper. Complainant submits this complaint as a “Class Action Complaint”, which is ongoing. I am looking for other employees who had to have a “Forensic Psychiatric Evaluations” If any postal employee would like to be included into this class action complaint, please contact me at via e-mail ; foochiememo@aol.com
Now we can send it to Egypt. No matter what the APWU thinks, Donahue will do the American Business response ans screw the workers..
This was originally intended just as a way to shake cash out of the PO. Bush needed extra billions to throw at Iraq.
w t f over
This postal problem is the easiest fix in congressional history, yet no one in Congress will step up and do it.
1) The Postal Service has overpaid in the retirement fund for twenty plus years, give them the money back, about $60 billion
2) Reverse the congressional act that forces the Postal Service to pay $5.5 billion to “prepay retiree health benefits” and go back to the way that everyone does, PAYGO.
3) allow the Postal Service to continue to do what it has been doing for tha last ten years, matching the manpower to the mail volume by attrition. With the possible exception of the overage of administration and middle level management; the Post Office has done a remarkable job of downsizing with little or no sideeffects.
4) send Congress on a vacation while the country figures out the democracy vs big business crisis. This is where the future of the country lies, does business support the country or are we supposed to support big business.
My opinion, throw the moneychangers out of the temple of democracy!
To rodman, who are you speaking of when you state “our retirement”? We the Postal workers pay into our own retirement and support ourselves without being funded by the Federal Govt. However the Federal Gov’t does not let us control our own cost when it comes to operating or retirement. So before you speak you should realize that we would be able to operate more efficiently if we weren’t being controlled to the extent we are.
Brilliant! Let the PO have access to our retirement funds. Then we can spend our retirements eating dog food.