Never On Saturday Or Sunday?
WASHINGTON –– A Postal Service battered by slowing business and billions in projected losses might eliminate Saturday mail delivery and close or consolidate some post offices and facilities.
Congress wants to know what went wrong to make such possible service cuts necessary, especially since a rate increase went into effect in January.
"We need to know what happened here," Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said in a statement, noting that the Postal Service was projecting big gains entering the holiday season last year.
"The Postal Service can't continue to run this way without serious harm to the affordable mail service the American people deserve," he said.
Postmaster General William Henderson was among those called to testify at Wednesday's hearing before Burton's House Government Reform Committee.
The Postal Service receives no taxpayer money for its operations, but remains a government agency and operates under laws set by Congress. After five years in the black, the post office had a $199 million loss last fiscal year.
Among the problems cited by the Postal Service are wage rate increases larger than the rate of inflation, rising fuel costs, greater competition and increasing use of electronic alternatives like the Internet. There also has been a drop in mail volume because of the poor economy, further reducing anticipated income.
Tuesday, the Postal Service announced a study of options to dig out of its hole, such as cutting back to a five-day schedule that would eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays. The agency also will examine how much money can be saved by consolidating and closing postal plants and offices.
The American Postal Workers Union, which has 366,000 members nationwide, said it would "vigorously" oppose such changes, which would require congressional approval.
"The effect of such activity on the APWU membership would be dramatic as the number of duty assignments would be reduced and employees would be required to relocate to more distant locations," William Burrus, the union's executive vice president, said in a statement.
The financial savings of going to five-day service could be substantial, said S. David Fineman, vice chairman of the post office's governing board and one of those scheduled to testify.
"It could offset the amount of the loss that we have, and we would hope that whatever actions we take will be able to cause us to ask for less of a rate increase," he said.
The price of first class mail went up a penny to 34 cents in January. Postal managers plan to apply this summer for another rate increase, to take effect next year.
Critics of the agency questioned the purpose of the new study.
"The Postal Service should be focusing on issues they can implement now and management decisions they can implement without congressional approval," said Robert McLean, director of the Virginia-based Mailers Council, a coalition of businesses and mailing groups.
He said the agency should focus on cutting its work force of about 798,000 people.
The new study will examine ending Saturday delivery for all mail except overnight delivery. The study won't consider closing post office windows for other Saturday services.
The study of consolidating postal facilities will focus on behind-the-scenes operations such as mail sorting and delivery and will seek ways to avoid affecting customers, Fineman said.
Last week, the Postal Service announced its plans for labor, administrative and transportation cuts over the next five years. Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan said the agency is committed to cutting costs by $2.5 billion by 2003.
Earlier this month, the Postal Service said it was freezing more than 800 new construction and leasing projects across the country.
For the past several years postal leaders have sought changes in the laws that regulate how the post office operates to give them more flexibility in changing rates and services to contend with rising costs and changes in competition. Under current rules it takes almost a year to change rates.
Long negotiations and hearings produced a bill the agency felt would solve many of their problems last year, but the measure never came up for a vote and died with the end of the last Congress.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
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