Postal Service

WASHINGTON - The US Postal Service, expecting about $9 billion in losses this year amid slumping mail volume, is still paying thousands of its workers millions of dollars each year to do nothing. Longstanding labor agreements with the largest postal unions prohibit the Postal Service from laying off or reassigning workers because of broken equipment or periods of low mail volume. Instead, some idled employees report for work and are instructed to sit in a break room or cafeteria and do nothing.

WASHINGTON - Postmaster General John Potter said yesterday that the financially strapped US Postal Service will run out of money this year without help from Congress. The only lingering question, Potter told a House subcommittee, is which bills will get paid and which will not. He said ensuring the payment of workers' salaries comes first. But Potter also said other bills may have to wait. Potter's appearance came as the agency, which has lived on a reputation of serving through wind, rain, and all sorts of obstacles, seeks permission to reduce mail delivery to five days a week.

The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday proposed closing three mail processing centers in Massachusetts and moving their operations elsewhere as part of a nationwide effort by the financially struggling agency to cut billions of dollars in costs. Under the plan, sorting centers in Wareham, Waltham and Shrewsbury would close, and operations would shift to facilities in Providence, R.I., Boston and North Reading. The Shrewsbury facility employs more than 500, Waltham about 400 and Wareham nearly 100. A small facility in Lowell that employs just six people is also on the closure list.

THE POSTAL Service's announcement that it will consider closing more than 3,600 post offices nationwide after a six-month review period has set off alarm bells for many Massachusetts residents, given that the state stands to lose 43 local branches - many of them in areas that are far from the next-closest post office. But the Postal Service needs to adapt as times change. Especially for those who don't have cars, the trek to another post office will prove a time-eating inconvenience.

Dawn Makrinikolas has been a letter carrier in North Attleborough for 10 years. She loves her job - sorting mail in the morning, going on the road with her deliveries, chatting with customers she serves. But Makrinikolas, 47, is a part-time employee who has been losing hours and earnings as mail volume drops. Every year, when the Postal Service surveys business on its rural routes, she worries her paycheck could shrink further - especially this year, as the service considers drastic cutbacks.

LYNDONVILLE, Vt. — An 89-year-old disabled World War II veteran who couldn’t get mail delivered to his home because the Postal Service said his narrow street was too tricky for vehicles to navigate finally has a mailbox. A group of disability advocates helped Robert Rhein overcome obstacles that kept him from having the mailbox closer to his home and find someone to install it for him. After hearing of Rhein’s troubles getting his mail, Tina Wood of Disability Rights Vermont worked with the office of Senator Bernie Sanders to ask the Postal Service to make a reasonable accommodation for Rhein under the Rehabilitation Act. The first request was denied, but Rhein appealed.

WASHINGTON - The US Postal Service relied on questionable data to identify more than 3,600 post offices and other retail operations to study for closure, an oversight panel has found. In many cases the selection process ignored whether an alternate post office was nearby and which closures would reduce costs the most, and it lacked sufficient data and analysis to make the best decisions, the Postal Regulatory Commission said. "We certainly challenge their methodology," the commission's chairwoman, Ruth Goldway, said this week.

WASHINGTON — The independent panel overseeing the US Postal Service rejected yesterday the agency’s request to increase the cost of mailing a letter by 2 cents, keeping first-class stamps at 44 cents. Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, suggested at a news conference that the problem with the proposal was more in the packaging than the plea. In July, the Postal Service proposed raising first-class postage to 46 cents as part of a strategy for dealing with a worsening money shortfall.

ANCHORAGE - Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season will probably not get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers. The US Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks. Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender.