On December 4th, the Task Force on the United States Postal Service released their report on increasing the financial stability of the Postal Service. While the report is non-binding, it did make recommendations the Postal Service can take to reduce labor costs. These steps include eliminating collective bargaining over pay for postal employees, increasing employee contributions to the pension system, and converting to a defined contribution system. The report also recommends lifting the caps on how much the USPS can charge for letter delivery, giving it the authority to eliminate a day of mail delivery, and allowing the Postal Service to charge private carriers for access to the mail box.
The report states the Postal Service should restructure the payments made into the Retiree Health Benefits Fund to be based on the population of postal employees, but the report continues to recommend the current mandate to pre-fund.
The Task Force’s entire report can be read here.