U.S. Postal Service Posts Quarterly Loss Of $5.2 Billion

[cheryl]

U.S. Postal Service Posts Quarterly Loss Of $5.2 Billion - Bloomberg

“We have reached the point where we must conserve cash in order to fund operations,” Chairman Thurgood Marshall Jr said at a Postal Service board meeting yesterday in Washington. “Our highest priority is to continue delivering the mail.”

Most of the service’s losses have come from the pre-funding requirement for future retirees’ health care since it was implemented in 2007, Fredric Rolando, president of the Washington-based National Association of Letter Carriers union, said in an e-mail.

“The irony of Congress continuing to insist on pre-funding is that the Postal Service already has $45 billion in its future retiree health benefits fund, more than any company in America and enough for decades into the future,” he said.

 

[Catatonic]

I believe the "losses" are beginning to exceed the unrealistic funding of pension health-care benefits.

One wonders if the politicians are planning to use this additional funding largess for some purpose other than it's intended purpose.

 

[TearsInRain]

despite being our competitor, i'm sickened by the incompetence congress has shown in dealing with our national post service

 

[bluehdmc]

It really looks like Congress wants the Postal Service to fail. Then they can privatize it and some large contributor to someone's campaign can take it over. Then costs will really go up, service and salaries will go down.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Then costs will really go up, service and salaries will go down.

It is a common misconception that costs always go up while service and salaries always go down when a once public entity is privatized. We have a nursing home locally that was owned by the county that has since been sold to a private company. All you heard for months prior to the sale was that costs would skyrocket while patient care and staff wages would suffer. None of this has happened. The level of patient care has been maintained, staff wages have remained competitive and the company has made a profit.