Postmaster Gives Performance the Stamp of Approval

The Postal Service had positive net incomes until a law was passed in 2006. . . . It requires the Postal Service today to pay approximately 10 percent of every dollar we take in toward retiree health benefits. There are two facets of those retiree health benefits. We pay approximately $2.3 billion as the employer share of health benefits for those who are currently retired. In addition to that, we pay approximately $5.4 billion into a fund for future retirees' health benefits. . . .

Now without that obligation of $7.7 billion, the Postal Service would have a positive net income. . . . That is a burden that was recently placed on us, and it is something that we are right now in conversations with the folks on Capitol Hill, not to walk away from our obligation to retirees and their health benefits, because we want to certainly make sure we cover them, but looking at the pace at which we pay into the retiree health benefit fund. . . .

If our payment schedule was revisited and spread out over a longer term, we again would be in the positive range when it comes to that income.

Worker-work match

We're working very hard to match our use of resources, which is largely labor, to the lower volumes that we have. . . . As an example, last Friday we signed an agreement with the National Association of Letter Carriers that will enable the Postal Service in an expeditious way to adjust routes to better reflect the lower workload that's out there right now.

Does the Postal Service need all of the people it employs?