No Wage Increase Letter

Drastic action needed to save US postal service from folding

The United States Postal Service creed is a classic of American marketing.

First registered on the monumental James Farley Post deposit, in front of Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan, he is now on display on the wall of every post office in the country, declaring a commitment to deliver, no matter that: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged us stay from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever."

During my six years living in New York, including many hours of waiting in line at my local branch to pick up or send packages, I had time to memorize the text, and to consider the abyss between rhetoric and reality of a dysfunctional proud organization that Royal Mail seek effective.

So it was not entirely surprising to hear, in his testimony to Congress last week that the USPS is in crisis: the Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said that if more than 5 billion made available by the end, the postal service will default on its debts.

Senator Thomas Carper said: “The situation is dire. If we do nothing, if we don’t react in a smart, appropriate way, the postal service could literally close later this year.”

Donahoe was not requesting a handout, as such: the USPS has overpaid almost $7bn into the Federal Employees Retirement System, more than enough to cover its immediate liabilities. What he wants is to be given the authority to make deep cuts, breaking union contracts – and significantly reducing services in the process.

The postal service currently employs around 650,000 people. Donahoe proposes to cut this by a third, shut 3700 post offices, halve the number of mail depots and end Saturday deliveries.

This medicine would be unpalatable at the best of times, and with an official unemployment rate of 9.1% and a true joblessness figure almost double that, the US can ill afford massive layoffs at its second largest civilian employer. But according to management, there is no alternative in an era when so much business is conducted online and letter writing is fast becoming a bygone art.

big boosts in premiums for health insurance | Healthy lifestyle Journey

Two of the region’s three dominant health insurers intend to raise premiums on average by double digits for next year, and the third wants a double-digit increase for plans not structured as health maintenance organizations.

The premium for one insurance plan could rise almost 36 percent.

The insurers cite rising costs of medical care and federal health care reforms.

The question is whether the state will let them.

Under a new state law, health insurers must submit their premiums to the state Insurance Department for approval before they take effect.

The state can reject or modify the increases if regulators feel they are not appropriate or justified.

The law also means insurers must disclose their rate plans much earlier than in past years.

Reaction from consumers and small businesses has been swift.

“There’s no question that there’s frustration and anger,” said Howard N. Silverstein, president and CEO of Choice Employee Benefits Group LLC, an insurance agency. “Everybody I’ve talked to cannot believe that some of the rate increases are as high as they are.”

Joe Milazzo, owner of Milazzo Renovations in Lancaster, already was paying ,200 a month for individual coverage from Independent Health Association when he got a notice of an increase of roughly 15 percent.

“It’s craziness,” he said. “It’s getting to the point where health insurance payments are more than the mortgage payment.”

So he went to the Amherst Chamber of Commerce’s insurance broker and got almost the exact same plan from BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York for ,351.72 — but every three months, because he is now in a group plan.

“We’re talking a lot of money in savings, for virtually the same plan. I still don’t believe it,” he said.

The scarlet letter, a romance

Letter to my daughter

Full Dark, No Stars

No Talking

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency