Postal Service’s Financial Report Brings Good News

The Postal Service’s latest financial report, which showed an operating profit of $1.2 billion, is good news, said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.

“The report shows there is absolutely no justification for cuts in service to the American people or to the wages and benefits of postal employees,” he said. The Postal Service released the report for fiscal year 2015, which ran from Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2015, on Nov. 13.

The results mark the second consecutive year the USPS posted an operating profit of more than $1 billion and the third consecutive year Postal Service operations were “in the black.”

The positive financial report is the result of an improving economy and a sharp increase in package volume, Dimondstein noted. “I often say that the Internet taketh and the Internet giveth. First-class mail has declined, but online shopping has triggered an explosion in package volume.” In 2015, package volume increased by more than 11 percent over the previous year.

The Postal Service continues to show a net loss of $5.1 billion, “but that’s essentially a fraud,” Dimondstein said. “The entire loss was the result of a 2006 law that forces the Postal Service to pre-fund health care benefits for future retirees 75 years in advance,” he said. The Postal Service is the only entity – private or public – that is required to pre-fund benefits in this fashion.

The financial results bode well for the Postal Service and should give added momentum to efforts to developed postal reform legislation that will satisfy workers, customers and major mailers, Dimondstein said.