Lorraine Rumore has contributed the following:    ----------------------------------------  Politics News Alert: U.S. Postal Service seeks to withdraw employees from  existing federal health and retirement plans  August 11, 2011 4:47:25 PM  ----------------------------------------    The financially troubled U.S. Postal Service is seeking to reduce its workforce  by 20 percent (120,000 employees), through layoffs now prohibited by union contracts, and  to withdraw its employees from existing health and retirement plans, instead  creating its own benefit programs specifically for postal employees. If approved  by Congress, the changes could have major ramifications for federal workers  across the government. 

Read more in the Washington Post:    http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/E5QODK/V10G1P/PPKSN/E8NU4O/FVZ4E/1G/h 

Postal Workers:

Clerks and other workers represented by the American Postal Workers Union will be getting a 3.5 percent raise, spread over the life of their new, no-layoffs contract with the US Postal Service. Roughly 200,000 workers will get a 1 percent increase in November 2012, a 1.5 percent raise in November 2013, and another 1 percent in November 2014. Workers will continue to get separate cost of living raises starting in March 2013.

Postal Service: The Federal Times on March 9 reported that the USPS will eliminate 7,500 supervisors, managers and postmasters, and plans to eliminate 30,000 positions this year.