It’s in the mail

The union label is bringing yet another major American employer to its knees: the U.S. Postal Service.

Postmaster General John Potter released a handful of consultant reports Tuesday, all of which document a dismal outlook for the country's mail carrier. Foremost among the bad news: a projected loss of $238 billion over the next 10 years, and plunging mail volume, which dropped 13 percent last fiscal year alone.

Two likely results of those trends: an end to Saturday mail delivery and even higher stamp prices.

The Postal Service and its defenders love to blame technology for much of their problems. Aside from the postage-reducing business of e-mail and text messaging, millions of Americans no longer partake in the monthly ritual of mailing dozens of bills. The Internet, the expansion of credit card use and banking ingenuity let consumers pay most of their bills through automatic charges and deductions -- and make far fewer trips to the local post office.

But the Postal Service, like any other business, would have the flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions if not for crushing obligations to its unionized workers.

A required $5.5 billion annual prepayment for the health care benefits of future retirees made a black balance sheet bright red; last fiscal year's losses totaled $3.8 billion. Each year, the Postal Service spends a total of about $7 billion on health care for retirees -- 10 percent of its revenue.

About half of the Postal Service's 600,000 workers are eligible to retire in the next 10 years. They can't be laid off, their growing salaries can't be scaled back, and their pensions and health care subsidies are essentially a property right. Although new union contracts will be negotiated this year and next, Mr. Potter freely admits that next to nothing can be done to control Postal Service personnel costs.

Unions have hijacked the airline industry, sent automakers into a ditch and all but bankrupted states and local governments. Now they're hastening the demise of this country's mail service.

Card check, anyone?