Public Sector Union Beating Dead Horse : The Postal Service

The public sector unions are showing themselves to be too rigid in a sinking economy. This old attitude will be their collective down fall. The union bosses have always used the old adage that if they don't get what they want in the way of new entiltlements, all they have to do is fire up the base and strike.

Whether it would be for more money or better fringe benefits, and no matter how paralyzing the situation of the company they are striking, it doesn't matter. What is important is that the base employees believe that they will get what ever they want, anyway they can. If they begin to lose this idea, the union is dead.

This article points this fact out to a tee. Public sector unions believe there is a bottomless pit of tax dollars even though our economy is in decline.

The Postal Service is on the rocks, the bottemless pit is empty, but the union still believes that it can get more if they push harder, especially from the tax payers. The end result will be a total rejection of the unions by taxpayers when they vote to shut down the engine of waste. The Postal Service will be one of the first federal supported agencies to dumped in favor of private companies.

Time will tell just how much patience the taxpayers have supporting losing federal agencies.


The Postal Service Can't Afford Union Jobs
Source: Tad DeHaven, "The Postal Service Can't Afford Union Jobs," Daily Caller, October 12, 2010.

Although the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been able to shave billions in expenses, it hasn't been enough to stop the bleeding. The USPS, which is close to maxing out its $15 billion line of credit with the U.S. Treasury, faces the prospect of running out of operating cash by year's end, says Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute.

A big drag on the USPS's bottom line is the pesky postal unions.

Even though postal operations have become more automated, labor still accounts for 80 percent of the USPS's costs. The USPS has been able to eliminate thousands of positions through attrition, but it still possesses the second-largest civilian workforce in the country, behind only Wal-Mart.

With 85 percent of that workforce protected by collective bargaining agreement, the unions have become a giant anchor on an already sinking ship.

In 2009, the average postal employee received about $79,000 in total compensation, compared to $61,000 in wages and benefits received by the average private sector worker.

Collective bargaining agreements also make it difficult for the USPS to hire part-time workers, which could generate substantial savings, says DeHaven.

The USPS inspector general recently pointed out that the USPS's utilization of part-time workers is below UPS, FedEx, and its international counterparts. While only 13 percent of the USPS's workforce is part-time, the figures for UPS and FedEx are a respective 53 percent and 40 percent. Germany's Deutsche Post, which is privatized, employs a workforce that is 40 percent part-time.

Unfortunately, the game is rigged in favor of the postal unions, says DeHaven.