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U.S. Postal Service mail truck in a parking lot of Edmond's downtown post office, Friday, July 29, 2011. Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman

“Featherbedding” is a term for a union’s ploy to force the hiring of more workers than are actually needed to accomplish a task. The U.S. Senate seems intent on imposing a form of this practice on the U.S. Postal Service, with rules that restrict the closing of post offices that clearly need to be closed. Built in to the closure criteria are layers of exceptions such as economic impact, access to broadband Internet (one of the things that has devastated first-class mail), proximity to the nearest post office, etc. USPS wants to close 3,700 post offices. Senators apparently want to shrink that number to two or three. Perhaps a dozen or so underused post offices in affluent areas with high-speed DSL and another facility within two miles might be found and actually closed. Stamp the Senate’s micromanagement plan with this watermark: What a joke!

Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman Archives