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Saving Saturday Service
Sample Letter to the Editor | PDF
Please note: Below is a sample letter to the editor, which locals can customize to address the news coverage and editorials in their areas. The reports and editorials have varied widely, so it is not possible to prepare a response that is appropriate for all circumstances. Please keep in mind that many news outlets impose word limits, so check before sending a response.
To the Editor:
Businesses can’t grow by cutting service, but that’s what the Postal Service is proposing and what your [date] editorial endorsed.
Eliminating Saturday mail delivery would slow service and abandon individuals and companies that rely on weekend deliveries (such as mail-order medicines, DVDs, magazines, etc.). In short: Ending Saturday delivery would hurt citizens and businesses.
It also would weaken the USPS — perhaps fatally. Abolishing Saturday delivery would encourage high-priced couriers to fill the void, but only in the most profitable locations. And that would be the beginning of the end: Allowing private companies to skim lucrative operations would undermine the Postal Service’s ability to serve every American at an inexpensive, uniform rate, and privatization could soon follow.
The loss of a national, public postal system would be bad news for our country and our financial system: The Postal Service is a powerful engine in the nation’s economy and it operates a vast network that enables citizens, businesses and government to communicate quickly at a low cost.
Fortunately, eliminating Saturday delivery and other drastic cutbacks are not necessary. Congress could revitalize the USPS by repealing the mandate to pre-fund future retiree healthcare benefits. This burden – which no other federal agency or business bears – costs the Postal Service more than $5 billion a year. Without that requirement, which Congress imposed in 2006, the USPS would have experienced a cumulative surplus of $3.7 billion over the last three fiscal years, despite declining mail volume and an economy in chaos.
And the Postal Service could strengthen its financial position by ending the practice of granting excessive, below-cost discounts to major advertising mailers.
To survive, the U.S. Postal Service must innovate and improve service. The road to postal solvency is to eliminate the $5 billion pre-payment, and unfair, excessive discounts for large mailers.
[add signature, printed name, address, and phone number]
[Get the Facts, Spread with Word (APWU Web News Article 035-2010, April 28, 2010)]
