The USPS financial crisis is no longer a future concern; it’s happening now. Testifying before congress earlier this summer, Postmaster General and USPS CEO David Steiner said the agency is running out of cash, deferring retirement obligations and relying on temporary financial maneuvers to continue providing service. Those maneuvers include borrowing from employees’ retirement funds, a move that should stop every postal worker in their tracks.
When Steiner says the agency is borrowing from its employees’ retirement funds to stay afloat, he doesn’t mean individual TSP accounts are being raided or that earned pensions have vanished.
However, it does mean the USPS is using deferred employer retirement obligations as a cash-management tool, which should be a wake up call to every postal employee trying to make informed decisions about retirement, benefits, income, and long-term security.
Deferring retirement obligations just to keep the lights on is not only indicative of a cash-flow problem, it’s clear proof that the current funding model no longer works. And among the options being considered to turn things around are limits on bargaining as well as downsizing. And if recent efforts in Congress to increase amount federal employees pay toward retirement, rest assured similar cost-saving measures are being looked at for the USPS.
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