{"id":38592,"date":"2015-07-05T16:42:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T20:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.21cpw.com\/?p=38592"},"modified":"2015-07-05T16:56:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T20:56:29","slug":"nalcs-rolando-cutting-back-postal-service-hits-bangor-everywhere-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.21cpw.com\/nalcs-rolando-cutting-back-postal-service-hits-bangor-everywhere-else\/","title":{"rendered":"NALC’s Rolando: Cutting back Postal Service hits Bangor, everywhere else"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"rolando_large\"By Fredric Rolando – July 5, 2015<\/strong>
\n\"mailbox_cartoon\"A June 29 BDN OpEd<\/a><\/span> cast the problems with the U.S. Postal Service somewhat oddly, suggesting the issue is that the Heartland is experiencing slower mail deliveries so the \u201cPostal Service can deliver chocolates, flowers or teddy bears in San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are various misconceptions about the Postal Service \u2014 though few this creative \u2014 so perhaps it\u2019s time for some straight talk about the actual situation.<\/p>\n

Degradation of service affects everyone, whether in downtown Bangor or rural Maine \u2014 or in San Francisco, for that matter. When mail-processing facilities close, people face delays in mail they\u2019ve sent or are expecting.<\/p>\n

If Saturday mail delivery is eliminated, as some lawmakers in Washington, D.C., propose<\/a><\/span>, small businesses in Bangor \u2014 or Manhattan \u2014 won\u2019t receive weekend checks or orders. And veterans, the elderly and millions more would wait longer for government benefits or other important items.<\/p>\n

Similarly, if door-to-door delivery ends, people everywhere would be compelled to traipse around neighborhoods, often in inclement weather, seeking a cluster box.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the bottom line: Threats to mail service target everyone, not just specific regions or types of people. The real question is why Americans\u2019 mail service is threatened and what can be done about it.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conventional wisdom would say this: The Postal Service is losing billions of dollars a year because everyone\u2019s on the Internet, plummeting mail volume produces massive red ink, taxpayers are on the hook, so cuts in service are imperative.<\/p>\n

But every part of that is demonstrably false.<\/p>\n

For starters, postal operations are profitable. The Postal Service reported $1.4 billion in operating profits<\/a><\/span> in Fiscal Year 2014, a figure already surpassed halfway through 2015<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Why? After dropping during the worst recession in 80 years, mail revenue is stabilizing amid an improving economy. Meanwhile, as folks in Bangor and Portland shop online, skyrocketing package revenue makes the Internet a net positive and augurs well for the future.<\/p>\n

Moreover, taxpayers aren\u2019t involved with postal finances \u2014 by law, the Postal Service earns its revenue by selling stamps and services.<\/p>\n

\"PAEA_cartoon2\"There is red ink at the Postal Service, but it\u2019s unrelated to the mail or the Internet. Rather, it stems from Washington politics. In 2006, a lame-duck Congress mandated that the Postal Service prefund future retiree health benefits<\/a><\/span>. No other entity has to prefund for even one year; the Postal Service must prefund 75 years into the future and pay for it all over a decade. That $5.6 billion annual charge is the red ink.<\/p>\n

Some in Washington hope to use this artificial financial \u201ccrisis\u201d to achieve something they\u2019ve long sought \u2014 destroy a popular public agency, even turn its duties over to private corporations.<\/p>\n

To do so, they need you to believe that services you rely on are the problem \u2014 hence, that your mail must be slowed, your delivery days reduced, your door-to-door service ended.<\/p>\n

But degrading postal networks that have returned to profitability is illogical. It would needlessly hurt people, whether on farms, in small towns or in cities. It would hurt the Postal Service\u2019s bottom line by driving mail away. It would ignore the actual problem \u2014 the prefunding mandate. And it would cost Maine jobs. The national mailing industry, dependent on a robust, six day per week Postal Service, employs 7.5 million Americans in the private sector \u2014 including 49,060 Mainers.<\/p>\n

Still more is at stake. The Postal Service, based in the Constitution, unifies this vast nation. It\u2019s the largest employer of veterans. Every day on their routes, letter carriers protect people and neighborhoods, saving elderly residents who\u2019ve fallen or taken ill, removing people from burning cars after accidents, finding missing children or stopping crimes in progress. In May, letter carriers again conducted the country\u2019s largest single-day food drive, restocking food pantries in every community.<\/p>\n

Mainers should urge their congressional representatives to preserve the postal networks while addressing the prefunding fiasco. Then the Postal Service can continue to offer Americans, whether in our biggest cities or our smallest towns, the world\u2019s most-affordable delivery network.<\/p>\n

Fredric Rolando is president of the National Association of Letter Carriers in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: Cutting back Postal Service hits Bangor, everywhere else \u2014 Opinion \u2014 Bangor Daily News \u2014 BDN Maine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fredric Rolando – July 5, 2015 A June 29 BDN OpEd cast the problems with the U.S. Postal Service somewhat oddly, suggesting the issue is that the Heartland is experiencing slower mail deliveries so the \u201cPostal Service can deliver chocolates, flowers or teddy bears in San Francisco.\u201d There are various misconceptions about the Postal…<\/p>\n

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