USPS Responds to “Is the PMG lashing out at Congress by closing plants?”

plant consolidations, PMG, postal 14 Comments

Update: earlier this afternoon, Lisa Bowes replied to the USPS statement on her blog

The US Postal Service has responded to yesterday’s “deconstruction” of the USPS’s plant consolidation announcement on the Intellisent Postal Affairs blog:

If Lisa Bowes would have spent more time reading the materials the Postal Service provided on its website about Phase 2 of Network Rationalization http://usps.com/ourfuturenetwork and less time doing her own “deconstruction,” she would have a much better understanding why the Postal Service is taking this action. First, this is not new. Yesterday’s notification to mailers is a continuation of the network rationalization activity approved by the Postal Service Board of Governors in 2011. The consolidation of 141 mail processing facilities in 2012 and 2013 was highly successful and resulted in annual cost savings of approximately $865 million. After ensuring the efficient operations of our network following those changes, the Postal Service is ready to move forward in January 2015 with Phase 2 of Network Rationalization, which is expected to generate an additional $750 million in annual savings. The reason for moving forward is not a mystery – in the last three years, the Postal Service recorded financial losses of $26 billion and we continue to face significant financial challenges associated with the decline of First-Class Mail volume and revenue, wage and benefit inflation, increasing operating costs, as well as legislative mandates and significant debt pressures. In addition, the uncertainty regarding legislative reform and review of postal rates in the courts continues to delay needed capital investments in network operations and undermine the future financial viability of the Postal Service. Moving forward with streamlining our mail processing operations is part of a broader strategy to position the Postal Service for the future so we can continue to meet our customers’ mailing and shipping needs.

Dave Partenheimer
Manager, Media Relations
U.S. Postal Service

  • Underdog

    Liar. That simple.

  • Retired USPS ET

    Wow!!! The USPS is spreading the bull$hit so thick that they are even beginning to delude themselves.

    During my long postal career I’ve seen many people on meteoric rises to the uppermost echelons. Unfortunately, their predominant common denominators included being non-threatening (ie: less intelligent sycophants) than those promoting them, an abhorrent lack of necessary skills (I MUST know what I’m doing, since the sign on my door has the title stating I do), and a “throw mama under the bus” mentality (self-survival at any cost). Sure, there have been some that truly know what they are doing and do it well but, sadly, those are in a distinct minority.

    Dismantling the USPS? You bet your a$$ they are There is no valid argument, save the desire to financially encumber and privatize, to dismantle an otherwise profitable service.

  • The Truth

    Right on Right on…..

  • upyourlubrano

    big problem with public relations re-buttle, first of all we did not lose 26 billion dollars, we actually made money in the past 2 quarters, the payment to the future retirement is all fabricated anyway. I wonder how much money we would save if we DOWNSIZED HEADQUARTERS? Maybe eliminate the Board of Governors should save us at least 5 million a year, how about pivoting out all the vice presidents jobs to other vice resident? That should a few million, oh and how about consolidating all the Public Relations into one office, theres another couple of million, and I did not even eliminate any jobs where real work gets done!

  • Dr. Pete

    Exactly! Guess what? As USPS looks to eliminate processing centers and toss those people out on their butts, headquarters is hiring!!!!!! The public relations department is ridiculous. They have a ton of people to do a little bit of work. How about outsourcing all of it and corporate communications to a private firm! I guarantee that would cut a load of waste and save a bunch of money! Then the real workers in the field could keep their jobs!

  • Lil Deb

    $750 million in savings? How come no one has asked the USPS how much money it spends every year paying out lost greivences? It was $640 million+ in 2011 and has gone up significantly since then.

  • Somebody

    With all of the trouble and cooking of the books at the VA, when is someone going to take a hard look at the USPS?!

  • Tony

    Retired USPS ET: Amen! You summed it up perfectly!

  • Billy Jay

    This is rather vague. The government could actually contract out the entire postal service to the highest bidder, if it wanted to. All postal properties are owned by the US government.

  • THE BIG TRUTH

    I would LOVE to see this. I believe that eventually it will happen. The usps is going to go into default, and before congress does anything to save it they’ll want a full investigation with recommendations for cuts. GOOD! Do the cutting at L’Enfant!!! I have never heard of a company in deep financial trouble that doesn’t cut waste at its headquarters. people need to know the truth. Headquarters has hundreds of people making $100,000+ doing outdated work. This immature, nasty letter from Media Relations shows how testy headquarters gets when they get called on their bull and lies. I’d be worried about my job too if I made tons of money for doing very little while others saw their jobs being eliminated!

  • Just Sayin’

    The PMG is going to work for Amazon as a Senior VP, making 2.2 million starting in 2015, simple really…Just Sayin’…

  • Johnny Rotten

    No,Donawhore will get a do nothing VP position at UPS as a reward for dismanteling it and sending big mailers to UPS after he retires and gets his ill gotten bonus’s.

  • vitameatavegamin

    If past history (2 previous PMGs) can be a guide, Donahoe is aiming for some lucrative future job, with a rival or a thinktank historically hostile to govt. and labor (payment for sabotage and incompent serivce as PMG)

  • Retiree

    Looks like the Mgr. Media Relations got a nerve hit. I am not aware of anyt cuts at the district offices or regional offices such as Denver and Minneapolis. I researched the salaries of the Northland District and I have never seen so many $100,000 in my life. And POOM’s falling all over themselves for work or avoid work and letting phone calls from AO PM go to voice mail. If all that fat is in Minneapolis, imagine what it is at Elephant Plaza. Could the Manager of Media Relations tell us how many jobs have been lost permanently at Elephant Plaza in the past 6 years? And do it with a polite response, not a tart response as Ms Bowes got.