Postmaster General David Steiner proposed the most sweeping service cuts in the history of the United States Postal Service in a May 8 meeting of the USPS Board of Governors.
Steiner’s opening report to the meeting called on Congress “to remove the mandates that ensure the Postal Service loses money: For example, days and levels of service, the ability to close unprofitable offices, and the underpricing of First-Class Mail. If we had flexibility on those three main issues, we could go a long way towards becoming profitable, but the American public would see reduced levels of service and higher rates.”
This amounts to the abolition of USPS as a public service, converting it openly into a for-profit model and setting the stage for its privatization. More than 70 percent of local post offices are unprofitable, according to USPS’ own estimates. Combined with cuts to “days and levels” of delivery service, this would lead broad swathes of the country, especially rural areas, without reliable access to mail.
He specifically singled out the post office’s Universal Service Obligation: The legal requirement to provide all Americans with postal delivery at uniform prices. “Revenues and savings cannot offset the costs associated with the universal service obligation, our ‘USO,’ under the current business model. It is unsustainable.”
The writer here should know that this is “the sky is falling “ speech Steiner gives. Post offices, most likely, are not going to close, but ending Saturday mail delivery is possible and would go a long way toward solvency. What’s troubling is the tens of thousands of managers and EAS employees that have been hired, despite falling volumes. He refuses to discuss it and until this bridge is crossed, congress should give him nothing.