Business Management - Government/Governmental

The announcement last year drew little notice: The long-troubled United States Postal Service was teaming up with equally distressed retailer Staples Inc. to offer mail services in 82 of its office supply stores.

The postal workers union views the deal as an attempt by management to escalate closings of post offices and privatize operations through a national retailer.

The union said the Staples counters should be staffed by postal service workers who are paid much better than store clerks, receive specific training in mail handling, and take an oath to protect the mail.

Postal reform hit yet another snag on Wednesday after a scheduled House committee vote on a new piece of legislation was postponed due to a lack of bipartisan support.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced the delay just hours before a markup of his new bill overhauling the U.S. Postal Service was scheduled to begin. Issa introduced a bill to mirror a proposal put forward by the White House in President Obama’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal.  

Becca Watkins, a spokeswoman for Issa, said the chairman’s offering of the White House plan “represents an

The Postal Service’s improving financial situation is fueling a debate between the agency, lawmakers and unions over what kind of legislation is needed to save the struggling agency. The debate centers on which income best represents the Postal Service’s financial health: operating or net.

Measured by operating income—revenue minus expenses—the Postal Service has made more than $1 billion in profit since the beginning of fiscal 2014. However, net income factors in the Postal Service’s obligation to prepay for retiree health benefits and fund its worker compensation fund, and there the service shows a net loss of $1.7 billion.

On a recent Saturday morning, 500 protesters poured out of a parade of school buses, signs and megaphones in hand, and tried their best to shame a single Staples store just outside Chicago. Among them was Mike Suchomel, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, who traveled all the way from New Jersey for a nearby labor conference.

What has infuriated Suchomel and many of his fellow postal union members is a new arrangement struck between USPS and the office supply retailer. Under the premise of a pilot program, a limited number of Staples locations are now offering most

If you believe Democratic politicians and their allies in the labor movement, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has a barely concealed agenda to privatize the U.S. Postal Service. Donahoe “can say whatever he wants,” Montana Senator Jon Tester told The Washington Post, “but I think he wants to privatize.”

Why else would Donahoe be so eager to cut costs at the USPS? He’s trying to push the post office to the brink of collapse so there will be no choice but to sell the 238-year-old government mail service. Or so goes the theory.

But this line of thinking doesn’t make sense.

Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President Jeffrey Williamson testified before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee yesterday on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census during a hearing titled "At a Crossroads: The Postal Service’s $100 Billion in Unfunded Liabilities." "The enactment of comprehensive postal reform legislation cannot wait," said Williamson. "The Postal Service has exhausted its borrowing authority, faces unnecessary and artificial costs that it cannot afford, and is constrained by law from correcting the problem...

The USPS is broken, and there are so many selfish motives permeating the committee rooms that have been tasked with devising a going-forward blueprint. Although the last postal reform effort is only seven years old, it already seems antiquated and unsustainable (the understatement of the century). And the odds of Congress enacting an encore during 2014 are not favorable.

Resolute Forest Products announced a five-year renewal of the master collective agreement covering four unionized U.S. pulp and paper mills in Augusta, GA, Calhoun, TN, Catawba, SC, and Coosa Pines, AL. The agreement covers about 1,500 employees, and improves wages in each of its five years and continues the partnership with all unions on employee safety and efficiency.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) offered an amendment to a bill (H.R 4011) going through committee that would ease restrictions on private carriers bidding to carry postal service deliveries to certain parts of Alaska.

Cummings withdrew his proposal for lack of support. Cumming's amendment would create new officer charged with leading the development of products and services that would enable the Postal Service to meet changing customer demands. It would also authorize the Postal Service to offer a range of non-postal products including check cashing services.

Though the Postal Service has been able to grow revenue by capitalizing on opportunities in Shipping and Package Services and has aggressively reduced operating costs, losses continue to mount due to the persistent decline of higher-margin First-Class Mail, stifling legal mandates, and its inflexible business and governance models.