GAO: Unions Making Postal Service Unsustainable :: Political News and commentaries

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April 15, 2010

GAO: Unions Making Postal Service Unsustainable

As was pointed out by Bob Adelmann back in March, the average postal worker now makes $83,000 a year, which is reflected in the fact that compensation and benefits constitute close to 80 percent of USPS's costs - despite major advances in technology and the automation of postal operations. Furthermore, the USPS can't fire anyone and can't make employees work faster or smarter because of the death grip the postal union has on the postal service. Postal workers are immune to reprimand and to any incentive to improve service.

So with this in mind, it's little wonder that the Government Accountability Office now says that USPS business model is broken and unsustainable. And it's no surprise - the blame lies squarely on the unions:

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Postal Service's business model is not sustainable, and union-backed generous employee benefits along with collective bargaining contracts are a big part of the problem, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

As mail volume has plummeted by 17 percent - or by 36 billion pieces - in the past three years, collective bargaining contracts have forced the Postal Service to keep full-time employees with full health and retirement benefits and preclude outsourcing of services.

"Limitations on the workforce mix of full-time and part-time postal employees and workforce flexibility rules contained in contracts with USPS's unions are key detriments of how postal work is organized and, thus, of its cost," the GAO report said.

"USPS officials told us that as mail volume declines, it would be more efficient to have a much higher proportion of part-time workers than is currently available under existing agreements," the report continued.

About 85 percent of USPS employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements, and "78 percent USPS employees are full-time and receive salary increases and cost of living adjustments based on predetermined levels," the report said.

Unions in the public sector where no profit on a product or service is generated, have never made sense. In his concise history of public sector unions, Doug Ross demonstrates with undeniable clarity why public sector unions should never have been allowed to organize in the first place (H/t - Mark Tapscott)

... The historical basis of unions revolved around workers receiving a reasonable share of a company's profits. But that tenet is nonsensical when applied to public service. Governments don't make profits; they simply assess taxes.

... because it has been exceedingly hard to fight public sector unions, the salaries and benefits of public employees have skyrocketed in recent years. Since the election of Barack Obama, the number of federal employees making over $150,000 a year has more than doubled to over 10,000.

... public sector unions have negotiated pension plans that are proving financially untenable. Many allow workers to retire at age 55 at around their full salary in their final years of employment. These pensions often include inflation adjustments as well as lifetime free health care.

... These plans are so outrageous that state retirement systems, for example, are currently underfunded by about a trillion dollars.

.. So how have public sector unions achieved these amazing results? The answer is hundreds of millions of dollars, the approximate amount that unions have contributed to federal campaigns since 1990. Almost every dollar went to Democrats or Democrat causes. In the 2008 election alone, some estimates put public sector union contributions to Democrats at $60 million.

... The Democrats' health care bill, the 'Employee Free Choice Act' and the $800+ billion stimulus bill all contained payoffs to public sector unions. In fact, while the private sector has shed 7,000,000 jobs since the recession began, the number of public sector jobs has risen every month.

... Public sector unions are killing our economic system and the American taxpayer. The debt unleashed by their outrageous benefits plans simply cannot be paid. The union bosses have lied to their members about lifetime benefits and they have betrayed the American people. Public sector unions must be disbanded and outlawed before our country resembles Greece, Spain and other European countries that are teetering on the brink of destruction, thanks to unions just like ours.And to think that the GAO is only now concluding that the unions have made the postal service unsustainable.

Dare I suggest that the entire federal government has already arrived at that point. Thanks in large measure to union benefits and wages that have helped result in government workers making 45% more than private sector employees; and then, of course, there's all those entitlements.

Posted by Abdul at April 15, 2010 3:22 PM

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