From Ken Sagar, President, Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO –
“The Post Master General announced his intentions to stop Saturday mail delivery, except for packages. It is regrettable that the Postal Service is caught up in a political crisis caused by an uncooperative Congress. A Congress that is requiring them to pre-fund retiree expenses 75 years into the future. The requirement is costing the post office billions of dollars to fund and the employees have neither been hired nor, in some cases, even born yet.
“No mail delivery on Saturday will cause undue hardship on the economy, impact rural Iowans, and increase work load on the letter carriers – especially on Mondays and delivery days after a holiday. This action will impact over 22, 000 postal employees and millions of Americans from small business to the elderly and the disabled.
“This is yet another step towards denying the Americans the universal postal service that they deserve.”
5 thoughts on “Iowa Federation of Labor reacts to post office announcement 5 day delivery”
So what was lost and what was gained? 1 less day of work and everybody still gets paid the same? Sounds like a good deal to me.
While I agree they get the same hourly wage, one less work day means one less pay day on their paycheck, which of course means less govt. money going out. I just wonder what the next move the post office will choose when they realize that this is only a temporary fix, and that real cost cutting is going to have to start. Such as addressing dead weight, inflated inter-departmental budgets. and excessive and unrealistic union demands.
Now just what else would you expect the union to say. They certainly won’t admit that they are at least partially the cause of this problem. We pay a awful amount of money for wages and benefits to someone to just walk all day. Newspaper carriers sure don’t get that much.
Unions are no different than any other organization. The Republicans and Democrats will never admit that they are part of the problem. If they are losing members they are losing money and power. If a business is losing market share then somebody is going to lose their job. Usually it is the poor guy that comes to work everyday and does his job that gets cut.
While I don’t want to see anyone lose their job, it’s a side effect of technology. It sure beats laying off employees or closing your doors. I’m sure I can live without Saturday mail.