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"Dan Hall" <dhall -at- san-carlos -dot- rms -dot- slb -dot- com> wrote:
> For instance, our Postal Service is heavily unionized,
> takes a week to deliver a letter across town, had a
> billion dollar surplus last year, and raised postage
> rates again this year. Lines in post offices are long,
> and the people behind the counters are not trained in
> customer service (read: rude). There are frequently
> four or five employees wandering about, taking breaks,
> etc. when there are dozens of customers waiting in line
> for the one "available" window.
Anecdotal evidence and apocypha do not an argument make.
The US Postal Service had a net loss of $199 million in fiscal 2000 and a
net capical deficiency of
$646 million in the same year, not a billion dollar surplus. http://www.usps.com/history/anrpt00/index1.htm has the financial highlights.
If I'm reading that
correctly, and please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't look
like they're rolling in money.
You may have experienced rudeness or a long wait at your post office, but
that doesn't mean that it is all
due to it being unionized. And, unless you've been back behind the counter
you really don't know what those
four or five employees wandering about are really doing--waiting for a
delivery to be checked in so it can be
sorted? Waiting for a supervisor to unlock a cash drawer so they can open a
window? Lots of things.
Ach....this is going beyond the scope of the original topic, and I
apologize.
===================
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