USPS Makes A Case For Debt Relief

The Postal Service says Congress needs to make changes to laws that are hindering its efforts to return to profitability and pay down its debt.
 
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and two members of the USPS Board of Governors told a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that a 2006 postal reform law requiring the agency to make accelerated prepayments for retiree health benefits was the primary reason the service was deeply in the red and likely to hit its $15 billion debt ceiling later this year.
 
Donahoe asked for help during hearing scrutinizing a contract approved in recently-completed negotiations between USPS and its largest collective bargaining unit, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU).
 
"This contract falls short of the goal. It is very clear that the intention is good; the Postmaster has worked diligently to get some concessions," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the committee during the hearing Tuesday. "However, we will hear today that we, in fact, under current law, may not be able to negotiate the contract that needs to be negotiated."
 
Postal officials said the tentative contract was the best they could do under a system which threatens to move any negotiations that reach the stage of impasse into the hands of a third-party arbiter.
 
"Failure to reach a negotiated agreement places us in binding arbitration," said Louis Giuliano, chairman of the Board of Governors at the Postal Service. Arbitration "would not have allowed us to realize most of the benefits we see under this negotiated contract."

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