Sign petition to ‘Save Saturday Delivery’ at USPS

The U.S. Postal Service is critical to our economy — delivering mail, medicine and packages on time and at an affordable price, without a dime of taxpayer money.

But no company can grow or even maintain its business by cutting its service. Reducing the scope and quality of USPS service by eliminating Saturday delivery service or closing post offices and facilities will not restore the Postal Service to health. It would likely drive mailers away and therefore worsen the system’s financial problems.

TAKE A STAND! Please sign an online petition urging Congress to “Save Saturday Delivery.” ALSO, please download, print, and collect signatures for the “Save Saturday Delivery” petition being circulated by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Union-printed copies of the petition are also available; call 206-284-3420 for info. When you have filled the petition(s) with signatures, please mail it to NALC Branch 79, attn: Rick Horner, 210 Queen Anne Ave. N., Suite 201, Seattle, WA, 98109. NALC Branch 79 needs to receive these petitions by Friday, Nov. 11. The NALC will use the petitions in its on going campaign to pressure Congress to Save America’s Postal Service.

Here’s why this effort and this petition is so important:

— Cutting Saturday delivery may be penny wise, but it’s pound foolish — a 16% service cut that saves little money.
— Closing post offices and facilities will cost jobs, cut off rural communities and make it harder for small businesses to grow.
— Eliminating Saturday delivery would undermine the Postal Service’s role in parcel delivery, the fastest growing part of the postal industry.

The root of the Postal Service’s current financial crisis is a 2006 law that drains the USPS of $5.5 billion a year and forces it to overpay billions more into federal pension accounts. Congress created the USPS financial crisis, and Congress can fix it — without drastic cuts in service or massive layoffs, and at no cost to taxpayers.

H.R. 1351, legislation now before Congress, addresses the primary cause of the financial crisis by correcting the unfair pre-funding mandate imposed by Congress.

ALSO SEE — Nationwide rallies urge Congress to save USPS (The Stand, Sept. 28)