{"id":17011,"date":"2016-11-16T09:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T14:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=17011"},"modified":"2016-11-16T09:01:31","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T14:01:31","slug":"nalc-president-rolandos-statement-on-usps-fiscal-2016-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2016\/11\/16\/nalc-president-rolandos-statement-on-usps-fiscal-2016-report\/","title":{"rendered":"NALC President Rolando\u2019s statement on USPS\u2019 Fiscal 2016 report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Statement from Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, on USPS\u2019 annual financial report:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Postal Service financial report shows a $610 million operating profit for Fiscal Year 2016, demonstrating the strength of the postal turnaround. USPS now has three straight years of operating in the black, with a total operating profit of $3.2 billion since 2013.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s impressive for a government entity that gets no taxpayer money\u2014earning its revenue instead by selling stamps\u2014while enjoying strong public support and providing Americans and their businesses with the industrial world\u2019s most affordable delivery network.<\/p>\n

Importantly, these operating profits stem from two ongoing structural factors: As the economy gradually improves from the worst recession in 80 years, letter revenue is largely stabilizing. And as the internet drives online shopping, package revenue is rising sharply (up 16 percent this year), auguring well for the future. Record worker productivity also contributes.<\/p>\n

The red ink you hear about has nothing to do with the mail but rather with congressional politics\u2014the 2006 decision by a lame-duck Congress to compel the Postal Service to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. No other public agency or private company has to do this even one year in advance; USPS must pre-fund these benefits decades into the future. That $5.8 billion annual charge is the \u201cred ink.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pre-funding issue can be readily addressed if Congress acts on practical, targeted postal reform. There is a\u00a0strong consensus within a coalition consisting of the Postal Service, postal unions, businesses, mailers and industry groups, as well as key legislators, for a reform package that all stakeholders can buy into, including addressing pre-funding, allowing USPS to use its invaluable networks for some new products and services, and adopting best private-sector practices in investing the USPS retiree health benefits fund. Our coalition will work with Congress to overcome the short-term impact of the rate roll-back and move legislation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the year\u2019s operating profit would have been $1.6 billion had it not been for the first annual stamp price rollback since 1919. That rollback, which took place halfway through the fiscal year (in April), makes little financial sense, because USPS already has the industrial world\u2019s lowest rates. Nonetheless, the adverse effect on postal revenues should be short term, with the Postal Regulatory Commission\u2019s legally mandated review of the postage rate-setting system starting early next year. We are confident that the PRC will restore rates to sensible levels before implementing a new system.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe Postal Service\u2019s operating profits have been
\ndriven by improved letter\/package revenue.\u00a0<\/span>Source\/details<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statement from Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, on USPS\u2019 annual financial report: Today\u2019s Postal Service financial report shows a $610 million operating profit for Fiscal Year 2016, demonstrating the strength of the postal turnaround. USPS now has three straight years of operating in the black, with a total operating profit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-nalc-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17011"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17015,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011\/revisions\/17015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}