The Insanity of the United States Postal Service

Quote: rxwine

As you lower the benefits or pay, you increase the chances employees won't care if they F... up or get fired. The F...ing up being more mail dumped in ditches when employees don't care.

Well, that's my theory.

Its not changing the level of benefits or pay. Its just not requiring them to prepay medical benefits for 50+ years into the future. The benefits are the same, they are just not being forced to prepay many decades for them (assuming this gets through the Senate).

Quote: Gandler

Its not changing the level of benefits or pay. Its just not requiring them to prepay medical benefits for 50+ years into the future. The benefits are the same, they are just not being forced to prepay many decades for them (assuming this gets through the Senate).

Does the change provide medical coverage of the same type it does now?

It sounded to me like it was something that used a combined approach putting them into Medicare, but I will readily admit I am not sure what they have now or what it will be when changed.

Quote: RonC

Does the change provide medical coverage of the same type it does now?

It sounded to me like it was something that used a combined approach putting them into Medicare, but I will readily admit I am not sure what they have now or what it will be when changed.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3076


Yes, they may be tweaked year to year like any other department or employer. But, no massive change to coverage.

Also, allows the post office to make deals with local governments to sell services and products for the local government where an office is located (licenses, permits, etc....) for additional revenue.

This proposal should have bipartisan support, because it will allow the post office to be profitable once again (and have options to grow revenue with new services) so it can operate without the fear of losses while still providing universal service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9MhfFernBs



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/us/usps-mail-attacks-california.html


So this is very much a local story to a very small area (literally just one City block from what I can tell). But, its odd, because its what most people would consider a "nice area", if not above. This is not some gang riddled neighborhood where people are in human caused danger. And, what is even odder it seems the "human danger" is coming from one individual (not a gang or a criminal enterprise).

It sounds like the presence of one homeless man who is squatting in an elderly lady's apartment is causing USPS to suspend service to a specific block because he is making the block unsafe for the carriers. (by repeated physical attacks and verbal threats to carriers).

And, from what it looks like, its not just USPS, but residents and business owners who are frightened of this man. But, USPS is a good benchmark, because for those who don't know service is rarely suspended, even briefly, even in a tiny area, it has to be a major danger for a postmaster to even consider suspending service. So if a single homeless person is causing a service suspension to a block, that a big deal. I don't understand how he is not in jail? It seems like the postal police are more likely to respond than the local police at this point.

My guess (and this is several assumptions on my part), is it is a homeless person on drugs and/or mentally ill, and the local police are being ordered to be soft on the homeless. This is the danger when such behavior is allowed to spread, that simply one can cause a block to essentially shut down, and yet still nothing is done....

I should probably clarify, because I know my verbiage may sound harsh. I am using "homeless" to (perhaps unfairly) generalize the type of people who live that lifestyle by choice (camping on sidewalks, spitting at people walking, shouting at the sky, etc....), not people who genuinely fall on hard times and have nowhere to live and are trying to improve (which is sadly common right now with the housing market), but these are not the people who engage in this kind of behavior. I usually use the term, "campers" (as they often operate out of a tent) in real life to designate dangerous homeless who need to be addressed in a politically correct way, but if I make a post and use "campers" people would probably be confused. That is a bit of an off-topic rant, but I just do not understand why so many cities are accepting (and even protecting of) campers and even in severe circumstances where there are constant issues (like I would bet is causing this), and do nothing to stop it.....

Why not get a police escort or armed postal inspector or partner up on that rout

Quote: terapined

Why not get a police escort or armed postal inspector or partner up on that rout

Or just arrest the single crazy person causing all of this?

It sounds like he is more likley to be arrested by Postal Inspectors before the local police which is bizarre for something that is not really a mail crime (other than a very vague sense of disrupting delivery, which would at least get him in Federal prison, where at least there is no bail).