Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Big Picture Plans

The Postmaster General's Congressional testimony in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee got plenty of press earlier this week.
In case you missed it, the National Journal summarized PMG Donahoe's plans to save money:
Cuts in processing (by 2015)
  • Close mail-processing centers, going from nearly 500 centers to about 200
  • Eliminate 35,000 positions (overall, the postal service employs about 574,000 workers)
Cuts in mail delivery (by 2015)
  • Cutting the number of routes from 144,000 to 124,000
  • Eliminate 22,000 positions
Changes in service
  • Change first-class mail delivery window from one to three days to two to three days
Changes in labor agreements
  • Salaries of new career employees would be about 10 percent lower after a newly negotiated contract with a postal-workers union.
What do you think about these? Comment here.

21 comments:

plumfanatic said...

And how many people that don't process the mail or ever come in contact with any segment of the process will lose their jobs or get pay cuts?

Anonymous said...

Very few. The people at the top still believe it's mainly machinery that gets the mail delivered -- not the carriers who deliver, the clerks who sort or the PM's who make sure it all gets done even when the clerks and carriers need a day off.

Anonymous said...

Get rid of useless management positions and we will all be better off.

Anonymous said...

So they close 300 plants which means more fuel and time to get the mail to the carriers. We just moved a couple of zones from one building to another they figure to get rid of 2 or 3 routes but that will only offset the cost of the lease. They want to move my zone further away from our zone which would cost them more as they would have to add a route. You can see where I am going with this. They don't think things through. Get rid of 25 percent of management. Get rid of double/triple paper work. Machines don't deliver the mail, humans do or at least the last time I checked I did.

Anonymous said...

The way the carriers are treated now is not even human. The management seems to go insane after in the system for awhile. It is all fear, fear, fear. I worked for the postal service 15 years ago and was not this bad. I recently became employed again and I am shocked at how degraded the whole thing is. It is being run into the ground and people are treated horribly. What is amazing is that they put up with it.

Anonymous said...

One of the very important things is to not negatively impact the customers which use the postal service. Think things through, but don't think them to death--take the action necessary in steps--and well thought out--even if it means several pilots sites to see how things work out. We are a service industry and that is what we need to provide--service. Evaluate positions which may do a lot of traveling (non carriers)to see if there is a 'virtual' cost saving way (or even automated) which can take the place of those taskings.

Grannybunny said...

I hate that it has come to this, simply because Congress has continued to delay and refused to take the necessary actions to undo the draconian prefunding of future retiree health benefits and remedy the huge CSRS and FERS overpayments. We are having to piecemeal dismantle the Postal Service, and -- if and when Congress ever acts -- it may be too late to put it all back together again; if so, we will be left in a permanently shrunken and crippled state.

Anonymous said...

Just a thought, why don't you pay/benifit the people who do the work. Managment and higher ups need to have the lower pay.

Look how miserable/stressed the employees that move the mail have become. as a customer I would not want to spend my money on any business that is being run like the Postal Service lately. Who wants to support the business that cant get it together to do what they are in business to do and cuz its paying way to much money and benifits to people who do NOTHING to make the mail move.
Use your heads and try to save the business you have, no one wants to support a bunch of pencil pushers.

Anonymous said...

All valid comments. Too bad they will never be considered. The PMG believes his on the right course and it looks to me as if he wants to dismantle. Selling off the buildings now - the big announcement for the 15th. There won't be anything left that resembles the current USPS.

Anonymous said...

We need to do some restructuring...unforuneatly the PMG is not using the same thought process on management levels. I would eliminate the area offices and staff, they simply manage the managers. I would reduce the number of districts to 50, one office for each state. Relocate the district office to a small rural town where overhead is much cheaper!! Eliminate the MPOO position, again they simply manage the managers. In larger states, you may need to transfer some of the MPOO's to assistant district managers. These would have no impact to our customers and save money. Then look at the post offices and networks. Eliminate the "grand father clause" on moving exsisting delivey boxes. My carriers often cover 12 miles and hit 3 boxes. Still too many dismounts for city carriers because the boxes are still on the houses. Relocate existing city boxes to prevent too many stops. So many little things that could add up.

Anonymous said...

This "restructuring" has been a disastrous public relations nightmare. Many companies and customers who used us are already making plans for alternate shipping and mailng services. Why would the PMG go out of his way to destroy our customers' confidence and drive them away? YES, get rid of MPOO's. We don't need them. Save rural Post Offices who have the most loyal customers in the US.

Anonymous said...

In my little office, being studied for closure, I hate not knowing what to tell my customers...there are a few who are on the fence about even renewing their PO box. They say they if I'm not going to be here, they may not. Sad!! The customers are totally being driven away. Everything is clear as mud now and the customers are the ones suffering. They are scared because it seems parts of the USPS are unsure now.

Anonymous said...

I agree that the PMG is not thinking about our rural customers.take away our little offices and the customers are going to go with internet if they can get internet.they will go with ups or fedex.why not consolidate offices that are close to each other like 10 miles or less .take away saturday delivery, but most important take away all upper management that are pencil pushers.ther are lots of them.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the MPOO's are not necessary and in our district we have area managers. Useless titles, if we can't possibly run these Post Offices without their constant emails why were we installed as Postmasters? It's insulting. Everyday we can get 2+ emails about the same exact email we already received. And then we have another person that is constantly emailing that is the MPOO's "helper" as there is no other title for this person other than the Postmaster title they have. When you finally do "mess" up, and it's only a matter of time, guess how many people you have to answer to. Is there any wonder.

Anonymous said...

BOTTOM LINE: If the Post Office will make a legitimate Early Out Offer, people will leave in droves!!! This is where it gets tricky for Management - they don't want to lose everyone and only be left with PSE's who have not really learned the job yet. This should prove to be interesting!!!

Exhume said...

By 2015...they made the announcement Thursday that our plant is on the list for March of 2012.
So spare me all your "I'm in this with you crap" comments from the PMG.
What gets me are the unintelligent post comments like.."So they close 300 plants which means more fuel and time to get the mail to the carriers." You,as your statement reflects, are a comlete idiot.
Many people will loose their means of surviving...after 20-25 years in the Post Office we are somewhat old to start all over.
Rather than logging in as anonymous...stand your ground when you make such comment...give your name... Deweber...<--there's only one of me.
I do realize that cuts need to be made however there is a way to do things...all that is being done is gutting the P.O. Donahoe will not be remembered as great because he would have found a way with minimal to little reduction.

Exhume said...

By 2015...they made the announcement Thursday that our plant is on the list for March of 2012.
So spare me all your "I'm in this with you crap" comments from the PMG.
What gets me are the unintelligent post comments like.."So they close 300 plants which means more fuel and time to get the mail to the carriers." You,as your statement reflects, are a complete idiot.
Many people will loose their means of surviving...after 20-25 years in the Post Office we are somewhat old to start all over.
Rather than logging in as anonymous...stand your ground when you make such comment...give your name... Deweber...<--there's only one of me.
I do realize that cuts need to be made however there is a way to do things...all that is being done is gutting the P.O. Donahoe will not be remembered as great because he would have found a way with minimal to little reduction.

Exhume said...

If you think I ramble....Log onto the Federal Times. There are some good arguments on there.

Anonymous said...

I do beleive we have too many managers managing managers. We have too many EAS employees. Post Office branch supervisors are too busy processing paper work instead of supervising because we have too many upper management requesting too many reports. With all these negative talks the confidence of the public towards USPS will go down. You are not going to get the public sympathy when the economy is bad they will turn to our competitors. Upper management always makes haste decisions and with no input of any kind are coming from the employees who pocess and deliver the mail.

Anonymous said...

I think the thing that bothers me the most about the announcements are the change in service standards. This will be a bad reflection on the Post Office. Our service standards are good right now what we should be striving for is GREAT. Why in world would you want to go the other direction. Changing our service standards will actually make their prediction of not ever recovering first class come true even faster. What the heck is the PMG thinking! We live out in boondocks America and if they close the nearest plant to us which is over and hour and half already and if it goes to where we are told it will put it over 5 hours. I do agree we need to see some cuts - preferably upper management. How many Vice Presidents do we need. I am the Postmaster in my office and I don't have a Vice Postmaster - I have a Post Master Relief who comes in on days that I am not here. My office is ran on the bare minimum - no cleaning person here, oh wait there is it is I! No maintenence oh wait there again that is ME.

Anonymous said...

It is election season you know. Lawmakers are going to be in no hurry to help us out...meanwhile time is marching on