USPS May Be Unable to Make Payroll in October and Retiree Health Plan Costs, Unions' Letter to White House Says
On July 14, unions representing United States Postal Service (USPS) workers
wrote the White House with "extreme urgency" asking for a meeting to address
lack of funding for both employee payroll in October and health benefits for
retired employees.
The
href="http://www.federaltimes.com/blogs/fedtimes/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/unions_usps_letter.pdf"
target=_blank>letter, which the
href="http://www.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2009/07/16/the-disappearing-usps-union-letter/"
target=_blank>FederalTimes.com blog provided a scanned copy late
last week, says:
"[USPS] top executives are now saying that the USPS will default on a
$5.4 billion payment to prefund future retiree health benefits on September 30,
2009. And its government affairs representative are now telling
Congressional staff that the Postal Service may not be able to make payroll in
October and will be forced to issue IOUs instead."
The letter was co-signed by the presidents of the American Postal Workers
Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, National Association of
Letter Carriers and National Postal Mailhandlers Union, and sent to White House
Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina.
GovExec.com reported more on the letter in
href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43192" target=_blank>this
column on July 17.
www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm