Hi Ho, Hi Ho, The PMG Must Go

The lucky ones, some 26,500 of them, who took the early out have embarked on the next chapter of their lives, apres USPS. Those of us who are still working are left to wonder what's next for us and for the Postal Service.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has repeatedly spoken about the $11 billion surplus in the pension fund.  Yet in the latest video viewed by employees, the PMG said that the surplus is actually closer to $6 billion. Are we supposed to just accept that a $5 billion accounting error simply occured? That's a mighty big "Oops!" if you ask me. And not once in that address to employees did the PMG say anything remotely resembling "I'm sorry for this mistake" or "I apologize for misleading all of you." It seems to me that this man does not have the best interests of the Postal Service at heart.

Donahue came up through the ranks of the USPS yet he consistently has approached saving the Postal Service with proposals to slow service, close and sell post offices, and cut thousands of jobs. In times like these, when the USPS is facing serious problems, we need a leader who is willing to demonstrate creative problem solving skills instead of stumping to close over 3700 post offices and 252 processing centers.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a true champion of the USPS, has offered proposals to expand services at post offices that would create revenue. Donahue speaks about solving the fiscal problems by cutting services, and harps on how the internet is destroying first class mail.  The PMG stated last year: "From a fiscally responsible standpoint, we have to move ahead on this. We've lost too much [mail] volume and we have to address the infrastructure." Restructuring sounds good, but Donahue's ideas of restructuring are very different from those of lawmakers who are friendly toward the USPS.

Ralph Nader has pointed out that the savings from closing rural post offices is so small, $200 million a year, that it isn't worth the havoc it would cause for "millions of rural Americans already strip-mined of other essential services." Closing post offices would force Americans to spend more time and more money  on gas to travel longer distances to get to another post office.

Apparently Mr. Donahue forgets that we all work for the US Postal SERVICE. If SERVICE is part of who we are, then how does it make sense to cut services to the American public, rather than expand them?