Matinicus Island lies about 20 miles off the coast of Maine. Nearly 70 people live there year-round, and they count on the local post office to pay bills, mail birthday cards and letters, and receive needed prescriptions and other goods that they just can’t buy on the island. It truly is one of their only links to the mainland.
But recently, the U.S. Postal Service announced a list of nearly 3,700 post offices it will study and consider for closure. Many rural post offices, including 34 all around Maine, are on the list such as those on Matinicus Island and Cliff Island in Casco Bay. Other post offices on the target list are in small towns like Benedicta in Aroostook County, West Forks and Caratunk in western Somerset County, and Meddybemps and Topsfield in Washington County.
All of these post offices were selected by the U.S. Postal Service, we are told, because of low annual revenue, daily workload, or because there is another post office branch within two miles. The Postal Service will study the outlets on the list and may begin shuttering post offices beginning in 90 days.
There is no denying that the U.S. Postal Service faces a dire financial crisis – it lost $8.5 billion last year and expects to lose another $8.3 billion by the end of this fiscal year. But, the fact is– maintaining all of our nation’s rural post offices costs the Postal Service less than one percent of its total budget. Rural post offices are not the cause of its financial crisis. While there are some towns and cities where postal services could be consolidated or moved into a nearby retail store to ensure continued access to reliable mail service, this simply is not an option in many rural and remote areas. Matinicus Island is a great example. Closing this post office or moving it into a large retail facility is simply not realistic. This tiny post office is one of the only businesses on the island.
Before any decision is made to close or consolidate a post office, it is essential that the Postal Service get input from the community. It must determine how closing a post office will affect its customers, and it must consider its legal obligation to provide universal service.
The truth is– nearly 80 percent of the Postal Service’s costs are workforce-related; these are the costs it must confront, rather than reducing service which will only drive more customers away and cause revenues to decline further.
I have introduced legislation to help address the Postal Service’s structural shortfalls through several means, including workers’ compensation reforms that would likely save hundreds of millions of dollars. My bill would also remedy an enormous overpayment by the Postal Service into retirement funds and permit those overpaid funds to be used to address other financial obligations, such as its payments for future retiree health benefits.
The bill would also help clean up a contracting mess that includes costly, no-bid contracts awarded to employees who retire one day and return to work the next as an expensive contractor.
Other legislative proposals that have been introduced in Congress include a provision that would reduce the number of delivery days from six to five. I have several concerns with this proposal including the fact that five-day delivery would have a disproportionate effect on rural areas. Individuals in rural areas rely on mail delivery for communication and business purposes, including access to needed items like prescription drugs. Further, if Saturday delivery were eliminated, there would be no mail service from Friday to Tuesday during weeks when Monday is a holiday. And I have heard from many small community newspapers in Maine who tell me they depend on Saturday readership and revenue from advertisements.
Instead, the Postal Service should focus on cutting costs that will not involve reductions in service and access to postal products and services. The Postal Service must embrace fundamental change and take actions to reduce overhead costs, curb no-bid purchasing, bring the workforce benefit structure into line, and better serve customers to increase volume. A review of the most effective and best performing post offices would be a good idea to learn from them. Moving some small post offices into a local grocery store or pharmacy would make sense in some cases. However, closing many small, rural, or remote post offices that account for such a miniscule percentage of the whole budget is not among the changes that are needed.
The need to preserve a viable Postal Service is clear. Americans count on reliable, affordable, and universal mail service. A healthy Postal Service is not just important to postal customers, but also to the national economy, as the Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1.1 trillion mailing industry that employs approximately 8.7 million Americans, including nearly 40,000 here in Maine, in fields as diverse as direct mail, printing, catalog companies, paper manufacturing, and financial services. My legislation would help spark new life into the Postal Service as it modernizes yet maintains its vital role in our nation’s economy.
We are the United States Postal Service We can communicate without using the internet,Without being exposed on facebook to: Sister,Brother Father, Mother, Wife,Husband,Son,Daughter,Grandchildren,Any one in the whole country the whole world EVEN We are the postal Service good jobs good healh ins.When the politician cuts their pay,health ins perks etc. than mayby they can think of taking away our basic rights We are the United States Postal Service,just us nobody else and for a few cents more we can stop the tide of surrender, be; (ot the people for the people for the people ) [for just a few pennies more]
Ray W says: “We are expected to ignore the fact that the Postal Service reaches every household and business six days per week, a feat that UPS and FedEx can only marvel at, and it’s not supposed to make a profit; it’s supposed to break-even over time. The income from the larger, urban, areas covers any losses of the smaller, rural, areas and provides for universal service at universal rates.
What Congress and the President really need to do is refund the retirement surpluses, either eliminate the PAEA pre-funding requirement or pay it off with that refund, and use that refund to also eliminate all of the Postal Service’s debt. Only after that is completed should the Postal Service be permitted to gradually align its network to mail volumes, but only as can actually be shown is needed and without closing any post offices or reducing services. Five-day delivery and elimination of the overnight first-class standard would no longer sound reasonable.
Too much information seems to be getting out that might actually derail the privatization agenda, but it seems that they’ll be happy if they can only break the unions…for now.”
Well said Ray W., I wish there was a way that we could get this information out to more civil minded people, but they are hard to find these days, especially as long as the big corporations fund the lifestyles and campaigns of the majority of the politicians. This information needs to be made common knowledge because a lot of taxpayers have been misled concerning the state of the USPS and the means by which we are funded. With uniform on I was stopped in a supermarket the other day and asked “what is going on with the USPS?”. After a brief chat the man stated that he was always under the impression that we are funded by the government and I told him that I understood that most people, for whatever reason, have been led to believe the same. I gave him this website and other websites to look into and read and make a decision for himself on how we are funded and our history. I also asked him to PLEASE pass this information to as many people as possible and if he would make a simple phone call to help save the USPS. He assured me that he would because he loves his community P.O. and looks forward to his 6 day a week deliveries. How can we get this message out to more people? We need to flood the public with info!!!
The P.O. earns it’s own money with NO HELP from the American taxpayer!!!!!Every other Federal worker “earns” their money from the American taxpayer!!!!All the dopes and buffoons in Washington are paid by the American taxpayer,but sure as **** don’t earn it!!!!!!
Impeach Collins!!!!!!!This is the same buffoon that helped create the mess that we(P.O.) are in now(5 years after she and Bush set out to destroy us)!!!!!!!!BTW she is under the same health plan(FEHBP) and retirement plan(FERS) as us,yet you don’t hear her crying out to do away with her(or any other Federal worker’s)job or benefits!!!!!!!!!Stupid dope!!!!!!!!!!
[…] Preserving the U.S. Postal Service – Susan Collins, a Republican Senator from Maine, warns that post office closures will be highly detrimental to rural communities […]
The first thing that needs doing is for the USPS get its delivery standard changed so that it would enable it to process the mail during the hours of 6 AM to 6 PM. This is the most cost efficient time, it eliminates the night differential pay(almost 10%). Then the USPS needs to stop giving the mailers discounts on their “working” and “walk sequence” trays of mail. They should not be giving any discount on these trays that they are going to have to work anyway, that’s losing money. More attention needs to be paid to the things the USPS & media are not telling you. They want to layoff 120,000 , but are actively hiring in the 30,000 to 60,000 range. They want a flexible workforce, but on 09/27/2011 they converted all part time flexible clerk employees in facilities level 21 or higher to regular. The USPS needs to be looked at closer before any Congressional decisions.
The entire purpose of the PAEA pre-funding requirement seems to have been to drive the Postal Service into the ground; and it’s been pretty effective so far. Why would the 2006 Congress want to do this? PRIVATIZATION
If a “crisis” can be created that is sufficient to make it more palatable to close the smaller, under-performing, post offices, stations and branches, then all that is left are the larger, gravy, areas that a private company would absolutely drool over.
Once this “crisis” has been created, which it has, it’s also easier to point the finger of blame at the unions and workers: “The truth is– nearly 80 percent of the Postal Service’s costs are workforce-related; these are the costs it must confront, rather than reducing service which will only drive more customers away and cause revenues to decline further.” and “…bring the workforce benefit structure into line, and better serve customers to increase volume.”
(Translation: ‘If those workers weren’t being paid so much in wages and benefits, the Postal Service wouldn’t be facing insolvency.’)
We are expected to ignore the fact that the Postal Service reaches every household and business six days per week, a feat that UPS and Fedex can only marvel at, and it’s not supposed to make a profit; it’s supposed to break-even over time. The income from the larger, urban, areas covers any losses of the smaller, rural, areas and provides for universal service at universal rates.
What Congress and the President really need to do is refund the retirement surpluses, either eliminate the PAEA pre-funding requirement or pay it off with that refund, and use that refund to also eliminate all of the Postal Service’s debt. Only after that is completed should the Postal Service be permitted to gradually align its network to mail volumes, but only as can actually be shown is needed and without closing any post offices or reducing services. Five-day delivery and elimination of the overnight first-class standard would no longer sound reasonable.
Too much information seems to be getting out that might actually derail the privatization agenda, but it seems that they’ll be happy if they can only break the unions…for now.
Senator Collins, wasn’t it you who stated that postal salaries were right inline with UPS and Fed Ex employee salaries…in fact right in the middle with one being $1 per hour higher and the other was $1 per hour lower? The USPS sells SERVICE and nothing else. They capitalize on the work of their employees. Therefore it is reasonable that labor is 80% of it’s costs. Included in that 80% is health insurance premiums which are exorbitant ($14,000 per year for a family of 2) but why is it that we never hear Congress speak of insurance companies or reform? Why is it that we never hear of gas prices having a profound effect on the USPS? The USPS has a spending problem..$15 BILLION FOR FSS MACHINES last year???
Senator Collins is out of touch with the American worker. She is absolutely right about the less than 1% of the cost to USPS that would be saved by such closures. However, considering that the USPS employees over 400 thousnad men and women across this country and the idea that taking the work from those loyal men and women and giving it up to some Super-Store chain that imports most of its goods from other countries because the labor is cheaper will not serve this country or its citizens. The USPS is by its existence at the very heart of what this country stands for and one of the oldest institutions in our country and congressmen and women would destroy it with the exception of those that represent mostly rural areas and may lose a vote. Shame on You!
Are Senator Collins’ constituents aware that the current proposals to cut Postal Services including rural post offices , cuts in delievery days are because of her short sighted leadership on Postal issues. Maybe she needs to change committees. Let’s put government back to work for the people and make the USPS a first class example by offering more services, not less.
Congratulations Senator! You awoke from the financial nightmare you instituted upon the Postal Service and now you want to help some more. Could your help be because your constituents are finally about to feel the pain of your poor choices? After all- they are the ones that will re-elect you- or not.
When a service industries’ costs are 80 percent labor- how is that a bad thing?
Senator Collins makes an attempt to steer logic toward keeping such small locations open in spite of losses they generate. How can anyone say labor costs are the problem but intentionally ignore the fact that labor is required to run even the smallest site, not just utilities.
Perhaps the seventy people that continue to live in such isolated locations can volunteer or pay someone amongst themselves to travel to the mainland periodically to collect such parcels
Remarkable! Senator Collins was the one responsible for passing the legislation that directly caused the “postal financial crisis. Without the PAEA (Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006) audits by the GAO, CBO ans the Office of Inspector General have shown the Post Office would be running both efficiently and profitably. However Ms. Collins and her Republican henchmen, having tried for years to sink the Post Office so it could be privatized and sold off to their big business corporate donors , have finally succeeded.
Where she gets the gall to portray herself as a savior of the Post Office instead of being virtually soley responsible for destroying the Post Office shows how little the truth means to anyone in government.
It is a rare thing for one person to be responsible for destroyying an institution that was created by the Founding Fathers but congratulations Ms. Collins YOU are the one.