The United States Postal Service, which has long lived on the financial edge, is on the brink of a default as it lacks cash to make its payments.The agency may have to shut down entirely this winter if it cannot be able to make a USD 5.5 billion payment, The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported.
Congress should take an emergency action to stabilize the service's finances and prevent its collapse.
"Our situation is extremely serious," the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. "If Congress doesn't act, we will default."
This is while, the agency is considering cost-cutting measures including laying off 120,000 workers -- nearly one-fifth of the agency's work force -- to ease its deficit which will reach USD 9.2 billion this fiscal year.
The service needs congressional approval to overturn job protections and go ahead with its planned layoffs.
Powerful labor unions are angry with the move and have vowed to take action against it.
| Have they considered going on strike? That kind of thing goes over so well, nowadays. |