Postpone Deadline For Postal Service Funding Retiree Health Care

CHUCK ZLATKIN: Just a stop-gap, but welcome. A joint U.S. House of Representatives and Senate panel Sept. 25 approved a month-long spending plan for the U.S. Postal Service while Congress continues to debate a long-term funding solution.

Chuck Zlatkin, the legislative and political director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, said the measure contained some of the provisions postal unions were pushing, including temporarily relieving the agency of a requirement to pre-pay future retiree health-care benefits costs. The deadline for the USPS to begin paying those costs—an estimated $5.6 billion annually—was Sept. 30, Mr. Zlatkin explained, but the panel’s plan staved off the requirement.

Oppose Arbitration Shift

He said that union-backed legislation in the House would save USPS $4- billion in retiree health-care benefit funding per year. But unions oppose a Senate companion bill that mandates arbitrators to consider the financial health of the USPS when issuing contract awards, something labor leaders have said is superfluous and would weaken unions’ bargaining power.

The USPS has threatened to close post offices around the country and reduce service in order to address budget constraints.

“It’s a stop-gap; they deal with the immediate problem but it doesn’t deal with the long-term aspects of it,” Mr. Zlatkin said of the temporary postal funding. “But for right now it gets immediate financial relief to the Postal Service. This is good news.”