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 One Beltway Center |
President's MessageMarch 4, 2010 Dear Leaguers, The Big Day finally came with the Postal Service, under the leadership of Jack Potter, made the Big Announcement. The Big Announcement wasn’t not big in that any new ideas or concepts were presented, it was big in that the Postal Service had formulated the ideas into a plan. All of this was presented publicly on Tuesday morning at an event where hundreds of stakeholders and media were gathered in Washington DC. The agenda was well planned and carried out. After opening remarks by Board of Governors Chair, Louis Giuliano, in which he stated that the course on which the Postal Service is unsustainable, Mr. Potter then took center stage and was eloquent in presenting his case for the urgent need for change. Supported by a cast including representatives from two consulting groups, The Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Company, Mr. Giuliano, Deputy PMG Pat Donahoe, Board of Governors Vice Chair Thurgood Marshall Jr. and Robert Bernstock, President of Mailing and Shipping Services, Mr. Potter skillfully presented a picture of a Postal Service strapped by the requirement of prefunding future retirees’ health benefits, an expensive work force, declining volumes, a change in mail mix, the requirement of oversight by the Postal Regulatory Commission, restrictions in federal law, and a downed economy. All of these combined to help create a scenario, where if nothing else is done, the Postal Service stands to lose over $200 billion by the end of the year 2010. Much time was spent is presenting a plan in which the Postal Service might be able to reduce its accumulated loss to zero, provided that it is somehow enabled to implement each strategy that is part of the big plan. These strategies included relieve from the obligation for the Postal Service to prefund future retirees’ health benefits (perhaps through capturing the $75 billion purported by the OIG to have been overpaid by the Postal Service into the Civil Service Retirement System), a move from 6 days to 5 day delivery, expanded postal access into drug stores, grocery stores, and office supply stores (which would allow the Postal Service to close retail operations and post offices), create a more flexible workforce, matching the pricing of our individual products more closely with their costs to process and deliver, file for an exigent rate increase, and loosen the oversight on the Postal Service. The plan was presented quite well and an optimistic, almost festive feel was in the air. Following the presentation, a panel consisting of Potter, Donahoe, Bernstock, Giuliano, and Marshall answered questions fielded from the audience. Most of the answers were the expected ones, perhaps the most telling were two questions that were asked and not answered. The first was pretty straightforward; “What kinds of post offices are you looking to close?” Rather than answer the question, the panel went into a drawn out answer on how we will expand our access to customers. The second question asked, “ What will you do to reduce the layers of management?” The question seemed to be addressing the fact that we have a large headquarters operations, several area operations and 74 district operations. The panel answered that with a shrinking number of processing and delivery personnel, we’ll have need for fewer supervisors, and, as we move to more alternative access, we can reduce the need for Postmasters, presumably through closing post offices. So, the die is cast. The Postal Service, banking on support from all postal employee groups, the mailing community, Congress and the American people, has set out on a course of change. Time is tight. The presentation of the plan has opened up more questions of how, where, when and why. We’ll see how much the Postal Service will actually listen to all of its stakeholders or just provide them lip service. The League was first out of the box this year in taking the case for relief from the obligation to prefund future retirees’ health benefits. It is obvious that the Postal Service will need the help and support of many entities to successfully fully implement its plan. We’ll see soon how much support is there. Respectfully, Charley Mapa President, The LEAGUE |
League EventsJuly 18 - July 22, 2010 National League of Postmasters Convention Town and Country March 22 - March 24, 2011 League Legislative Forum Hyatt Regency Crystal City |
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