Concern Raises In The Tri-State As Postal Service Announces An End To Saturday Delivery
By: Casie Mason
Updated: February 7, 2013
By the end of the summer you might not be getting letters at your house on the weekends. The Post Office says eliminating Saturday delivery will save around two-billion dollars a year, but some people in the Tri-State say this could be a bad deal for postal workers.
"I describe myself as a short, fat, old retired disgruntled postal employee, and damn proud of it. That's how proud I am." says retired postal employee Al Griffin. Griffin has dedicated his life to the Post Office, and even in retirement his pride can be seen. Now with Saturday delivery on the chopping block, Griffin is standing up for what he believes. "It's almost like they've got a slash and burn policy. Instead of trying to grow the business they are thinking the only way to save it is to cut the Postal Service, degrade our service, and that's not the way to survive."
Griffin says the debt is not because the Post Office isn't bringing in money, he says it's what that money has to be spent on. "Basically I'm frustrated with the U.S. Congress. They are the ones who caused this problem back in 2006 by mandating what the Postal Service had to pay something like five and a half billion dollars a year into this fund to pre-fund future retirees health benefits. We aren't the just talking about, I'm retired, we are talking about people who not only don't work here yet, they haven't even been born yet and we have to pay their health benefit within a ten year period out of seventy years in the future," say Griffin. This retiree believes eliminating Saturday delivery is not the answer. "A lot of people will be hurt if they do it if they don't get six day delivery. That's our number one competitive edge that we have." Just a few weeks ago the Post Office announced hundreds of new part time carrier jobs, but what does delivery cuts mean for those workers. "We don't have answers for them right now. This throws everything out of whack." The pride in this former carrier has been delivered today, as he continues to hope for the best. "As you can see from our sign up there, that's exactly how we feel."
The end to Saturday delivery is not an entirely done deal. Congress has to approve the changes.
"I describe myself as a short, fat, old retired disgruntled postal employee, and damn proud of it. That's how proud I am." says retired postal employee Al Griffin. Griffin has dedicated his life to the Post Office, and even in retirement his pride can be seen. Now with Saturday delivery on the chopping block, Griffin is standing up for what he believes. "It's almost like they've got a slash and burn policy. Instead of trying to grow the business they are thinking the only way to save it is to cut the Postal Service, degrade our service, and that's not the way to survive."
Griffin says the debt is not because the Post Office isn't bringing in money, he says it's what that money has to be spent on. "Basically I'm frustrated with the U.S. Congress. They are the ones who caused this problem back in 2006 by mandating what the Postal Service had to pay something like five and a half billion dollars a year into this fund to pre-fund future retirees health benefits. We aren't the just talking about, I'm retired, we are talking about people who not only don't work here yet, they haven't even been born yet and we have to pay their health benefit within a ten year period out of seventy years in the future," say Griffin. This retiree believes eliminating Saturday delivery is not the answer. "A lot of people will be hurt if they do it if they don't get six day delivery. That's our number one competitive edge that we have." Just a few weeks ago the Post Office announced hundreds of new part time carrier jobs, but what does delivery cuts mean for those workers. "We don't have answers for them right now. This throws everything out of whack." The pride in this former carrier has been delivered today, as he continues to hope for the best. "As you can see from our sign up there, that's exactly how we feel."
The end to Saturday delivery is not an entirely done deal. Congress has to approve the changes.
