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USPS May Be Unable to Make Payroll in October and Retiree Health Plan Costs, Unions' Letter to White House Says
July 19, 2009

On July 14, unions representing United States Postal Service (USPS) workers

wrote the White House with "extreme urgency" asking for a meeting to address

lack of funding for both employee payroll in October and health benefits for

retired employees.

The href="http://www.federaltimes.com/blogs/fedtimes/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/unions_usps_letter.pdf"

target=_blank>letter, which the href="http://www.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2009/07/16/the-disappearing-usps-union-letter/"

target=_blank>FederalTimes.com blog provided a scanned copy late

last week, says:

"[USPS] top executives are now saying that the USPS will default on a

$5.4 billion payment to prefund future retiree health benefits on September 30,

2009.  And its government affairs representative are now telling

Congressional staff that the Postal Service may not be able to make payroll in

October and will be forced to issue IOUs instead."

The letter was co-signed by the presidents of the American Postal Workers

Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, National Association of

Letter Carriers and National Postal Mailhandlers Union, and sent to White House

Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina.

GovExec.com reported more on the letter in href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43192" target=_blank>this

column on July 17.



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