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A Surprising Example of the Depth of Deception
Burrus Update 04-2010, Feb. 4, 2010
Recently I instructed the union’s office staff to prepare labels for several letters, and I was surprised to discover that the labels they printed included nine-digit bar codes for each address — even though the letters identified the recipients only by their name, street address, city, and state. Knowing that the union’s secretaries were unaware of the millions of unique barcodes, I inquired about their ability to affix them to the labels.
They informed me that their desk-top label printers, which cost about $100, automatically applied the bar code to the labels when they typed the addresses.
I do not carry a cell phone, do not send text messages, and would not recognize “Facebook” on the Internet, so one can reasonably conclude that my knowledge of the latest technology is severely limited. Even so, I was shocked by this latest example of the colossal sham of postal policies: Management reduces postage for large mailers when they present mail with nine-digit barcodes — a feat my secretaries accomplished without any extra effort, equipment, or training.
I have frequently criticized excessive workshare discounts and their impact on postal revenue, so this Update does not break new ground; but I hope this example helps readers appreciate the depth of the deception associated with postage-rate reductions.
The mailing referred to above included nine-digit bar codes and the union incurred no cost other than the one-time investment in an inexpensive label-printer. The result was the placement of a nine-digit barcode, readable by USPS mail processing equipment, that will sort the letters to their state, city, and street. The union incurred no cost for the activity — not 10.5 cents, not 5 cents, but zero — for adding the nine-digit bar code.
Federal law requires uniform postal rates. No matter where you are mailing to or from, “uniform rates” means that the cost should be the same. The workshare-discount charade pretends that the cost that would be incurred by the Postal Service is forgiven if the work is performed prior to depositing it in the mail stream.
But the union’s secretaries affixed a barcode to my letters, and they entered the USPS mail processing system without any responsibility by the Postal Service to perform any sorting other than the walk sequence of the letter carrier. The cost of the work that the APWU secretaries performed is not 10.5 cents, the discount afforded large mailers; it is zero.
Until the Postal Service complies with the requirement for uniform rates and demands that all mailers adhere to these rules, it is absurd to even suggest that workers pay and benefits should be restricted.
William Burrus
President
