BY MARK JAMISON The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs finally took up its postal reform bill at a markup session on Wednesday, January 29. The new S.1486 the committee took up is significantly different from the Carper-Coburn bill released last August. The current version, aka the substitute bill or the managers’ amendment, has introduced changes to the … Read More
The disappearing postal workforce: Counting up the losses
BY MARK JAMISON On the first Friday of each month, economists, policymakers, and professionals in the finance industry wait for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to release the current jobs report. The BLS report, which quantifies unemployment in the U.S., is widely seen as one of the primary economic indicators. While some folks may judge the health of the economy … Read More
The Privatization Ruse
BY MARK JAMISON Accusations that the PMG’s ultimate goal is to privatize the Postal Service are apparently starting to make some of the folks at L’Enfant Plaza a little touchy. On January 17, the Washington Post ran a story about the new postal counters in Staples that included a quote from Senator Jon Tester of Montana: Donahoe “can say whatever he wants … Read More
Thinking inside the PO Box
BY MARK JAMISON On January 26, postage rates are going up — about 6 percent across the board, which means a First Class stamp will go from 46 to 49 cents. But there's another rate increase going into effect on that day, and it hasn't gotten much attention. Three weeks ago, deep in the back of the December 26 … Read More
A New Year’s Resolution: Support the People’s Post Office
BY MARK JAMISON Here’s a resolution for the New Year: Support the people’s post office. That means working to preserve an essential national infrastructure and rejecting initiatives to dismantle it, like closing post offices and cutting window hours, delivering the mail fewer days of the week, and converting customers to cluster boxes. It means working to ensure that the post … Read More
Why I did it and what’s at stake: Shining the light on NSAs
BY MARK JAMISON A couple of weeks ago I filed a motion with the Postal Regulatory Commission requesting access to the documents related to the Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) on the program to deliver Amazon parcels on Sundays. As I write this, the PRC has not yet ruled on my request, but regardless of what happens, I hope a useful … Read More
What Would JFK Do? The Yale Commencement Address
INTRODUCTION BY MARK JAMISON For the past couple of weeks, the media have focused, almost obsessively, on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, November 22 being the fiftieth anniversary of his death. I found myself wandering through some of JFK’s speeches and came across his commencement address at Yale University, delivered on June 11, 1962. In this speech President … Read More
The path to postal nirvana: An entitlement program for the mail industry
BY MARK JAMISON The postal monopolies have been the subject of much discussion recently. In last month’s Senate hearings, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma offered his view that the monopolies weren’t worth much anymore so the Postal Service doesn’t need much regulatory control. In the same hearing, Ruth Goldway, Chairman of the PRC, expressed concern that eliminating or modifying the … Read More
Lady Justice turns a blind eye: The PRC dismisses the Freistatt appeal as “untimely”
BY MARK JAMISON “The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.” — John Marshall “The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.” — … Read More
A few modest proposals concerning the rules on post office closures and appeals
BY MARK JAMISON The Postal Regulatory Commission recently dismissed two appeals on post office closings — Freistatt, Missouri, and the Franklin Station in Somerset County, New Jersey. Both appeals were dismissed because they were filed late – in both cases, less than a week after the deadline. There’s no question that the PRC has rules of procedure that it must … Read More
Shades of deception: The PMG testifies to the Senate
BY MARK JAMISON The Senate held another hearing on the Postal Service on Thursday, September 19. The hearing was titled: “Outside the Box: Reforming and Renewing the Postal Service, Part I – Maintaining Services, Reducing Costs and Increasing Revenue Through Innovation and Modernization.” Part II, scheduled for today, Thursday, September 26, promises to address workforce issues. The first hearing didn’t … Read More
What we have here is a failure to communicate: Learning from Jekyll Island
BY MARK JAMISON On September 12, we reported this story on Jekyll Island, Georgia, where the Postal Service apparently attempted to end delivery service for the island’s residents and businesses in exchange for maintaining a post office. The island is owned by the state and administered by the Jekyll Island Authority. The attorney for JIA in charge of negotiations with … Read More
Democracy rests finally upon us: Saving the Bronx General Post Office
On Saturday, September 21, there will be “Day of Action to Save the Post Office” in the Bronx, New York. The event begins with an “Emergency Meeting to Save the Post Office” at 11:00 a.m. at the Lincoln Hospital Auditorium, 234 East 149th Street. Then at 12:30 there will be a march to the Bronx General Post Office for a “Community … Read More
The Postal Service has a brand new bag: A post office or mail delivery, but not both
BY MARK JAMISON Off the Georgia coast just above the Florida border lies Jekyll Island, a popular tourist destination that boasts a beautiful beach, a historic district, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. A couple of hundred miles up the road is Augusta, Georgia, where the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, grew up. The Postal Service has a new strategy … Read More
The PMG has a bridge to sell: The GAO report on the Postal Service healthcare plan
BY MARK JAMISON One of the cornerstones of PMG Pat Donahoe’s plans for the Postal Service is the transfer of postal employees and retirees from the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) into a plan run by the Postal Service itself. Mr. Donahoe has assured everyone that a Postal Service plan would offer the same level of benefits at similar … Read More
Christmas for Pat: A heartwarming tale in which everyone gets what they want — and then doesn’t
BY MARK JAMISON You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there. – Yogi Berra It’s August and Congress is on its annual five-week summer break. Despite statements by folks like Senator Tom Carper and Congressman Darrell Issa, we don’t seem to be any closer to postal reform than we’ve … Read More