Visalia USPS rally on tap for today

Members of the U.S. Postal Service’s four employee unions will gather today outside Rep. Devin Nunes’ (R-Tulare) office to express support for legislation they say will restore the agency to financial health.

The rallying event, designated by postal employees as a Day of Action to Save America’s Postal Service, will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at 113 N. Church St. in Visalia. Similar rallies will take place in every congressional district throughout the country.

According to a press release issued by organizers of the event, the USPS’ current financial woes were created by a bill passed by Congress in 2006 that requires the agency to prefund 75 years’ worth of future retiree health benefits within just 10 years.

The congressional mandate costs the USPS more than $5 billion a year and accounts for “100 percent” of the agency’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years, the release says.
“There’s no other business of any kind that has to prepay 75 years in advance,” said Gael Weber, a retired local letter carrier. “We’re prepaying for people who haven’t been hired yet, who aren’t even born yet. How ridiculous is that?”

The president of a union that represents letter carriers in Porterville and Lindsay, Weber, who worked for the Porterville Post Office for nearly 30 years, said she will be in Visalia for the rally.

Weber’s husband has worked for the Porterville Post Office for three decades and still works there today.

“We’re hoping to take a good number of people over [to Visalia],” Weber said.

House Bill 1351, introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), would allow the USPS to apply the excess retirement payments to meet its financial obligations, the release says. About 200 members of the House of Representatives have signed as cosponsors for the bill, the release says.

If the legislation passes, Weber said the USPS will be able to regain its footing and become financially stable again.
“If we could get credit for overpayment, we wouldn’t be in the hole,” she said. “We wouldn’t have to close post offices, lay people off or cut back on services. Things would be totally different.”

Despite what many people think, Weber said the USPS has been very successful as of late.

The only thing holding the agency back is the congressional mandate, she said.

According to the release, the USPS has earned a $611 million net profit delivering the mail over the past four fiscal years.