{"id":6731,"date":"2013-11-16T09:05:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T14:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=6731"},"modified":"2013-11-16T09:05:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-16T14:05:35","slug":"apwu-president-says-dont-believe-the-type","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2013\/11\/16\/apwu-president-says-dont-believe-the-type\/","title":{"rendered":"APWU President Says &#8220;Don\u2019t Believe the Type&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>APWU President Dimondstein: \u2018Don\u2019t Believe the Type\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2-APWU-Pres.-Dimondstein.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6647\" alt=\"2-APWU-Pres.-Dimondstein\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2-APWU-Pres.-Dimondstein.gif\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeadlines across the country are shouting that the USPS lost billions of dollars again this year, but that\u2019s a fallacy,\u201d APWU President Mark Dimondstein said after the USPS released financial information for fiscal year 2013.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for the congressional mandate to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees, the USPS would have shown a surplus of $600 million.\u201d No other government agency or private company is required to make such payments, which cost the agency approximately $5.5 billion annually.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe USPS is suffering from a manufactured crisis,\u201d Dimondstein said. \u201cBut the fallout of the artificial crisis is real. Service has declined dramatically \u2014 mail takes days longer to arrive, carriers are delivering mail in the dark, lines at post offices are out the door \u2013 and good, union postal jobs are disappearing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe solution is clear: Congress must repeal the pre-funding mandate and allow the Postal Service to develop new services that will provide new revenue,\u201d the union president said.<\/p>\n<p>The recent USPS agreement to deliver Amazon\u2019s packages on Sundays is a good example, Dimondstein said, but the Postal Service must do more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe USPS should offer basic banking service to the millions of Americans who want a non-profit alternative to the big banks or who don\u2019t have bank accounts at all,\u201d he said. \u201cThis would give the working poor an alternative to the legal loan-sharking they are now victimized by. It also would provide another source of revenue. The Postal Service also should offer notary services and licensing.\u201d There are many other examples, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, there are some in Congress who want the Postal Service to fail. They are eager to privatize it,\u201d Dimondstein.<\/p>\n<p>But the American people don\u2019t agree. Dimondstein is calling for a \u201cgrand alliance\u201d to save the USPS as a public postal service and to protect postal jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>APWU President Dimondstein: \u2018Don\u2019t Believe the Type\u2019 \u201cHeadlines across the country are shouting that the USPS lost billions of dollars again this year, but that\u2019s a fallacy,\u201d APWU President Mark Dimondstein said after the USPS released financial information for fiscal year 2013. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for the congressional mandate to pre-fund health benefits for future [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6731","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=6731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6732,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6731\/revisions\/6732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}