Rallies Sunday to Preserve the Postal Service

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Letter carriers will hold rallies around the country Sunday in a day of action for a strong U.S. Postal Service and continued Saturday mail delivery. They will be joined by others in their communities who recognize the importance of maintaining universal mail service six days a week.

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Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said the following:

The plan to shrink the Postal Service and end six-day service is an attack on the future of this great institution and on the customers who need it. Many Americans – including small-business owners, the elderly, rural and urban residents, veterans and the tens of millions without access to reliable Internet service – would suffer if the strength and service of our Postal Service is compromised.

Eliminating Saturday delivery is a step toward dismantling the world's most affordable and efficient delivery network, which is older than the country itself and based in the Constitution. It would add costs to small businesses and greatly inconvenience many Americans – without saving taxpayers a dime, since the Postal Service doesn't use taxpayer money for its operations. It funds itself by the sale of stamps and other products.

It would hurt the Postal Service's bottom line, by driving mail out of the system, lowering revenue and thus requiring further cutbacks – leading to a death spiral for the USPS. It also would affect the economic recovery. The Postal Service is the hub of the $1.3 trillion mailing industry, which employs 7.5 million Americans in the private sector.

And degrading service doesn't even address the Postal Service's financial problems. In 2006, Congress mandated that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for decades to decades into the future, and pay for it within 10 years. No other agency or company is required to pre-fund, and this unfair mandate accounts for more than 80 percent of all postal red ink – $11 billion last year alone.

Instead of cutting services, Congress should address the pre-funding problem it created. Then the Postal Service can do what it has done for more than 200 years – develop a business plan to meet the needs of an evolving society.

Six-day delivery has been the law for 30 years, with bipartisan support in Congress. We ask all those who support a strong Postal Service to make your voice heard by joining a Delivering for America rally on March 24 to preserve six-day delivery. We need to send a clear message to Congress: Don't dismantle our Postal Service!

To find a rally near you, visit the Delivering for America website: http://action.deliveringforamerica.com/page/event/search_simple

SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers