Read the article then let me know if you see an obvious problem.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The opening of Postal Service retail centers in dozens of Staples stores around the country is being met with threats of protests and boycotts by the agency’s unions. The new outlets are staffed by Staples employees, not postal workers, and labor officials say that move replaces well-paying union jobs with low-wage, nonunion workers.

The union plans to hold “sustained” protests this month at Staples stores in the San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., area that would be expanded elsewhere. Union officials also are considering how they can exert pressure on Staples shareholders. “If Staples insists on continuing to refuse to staff those stores with postal workers, we’re going to urge people to take their business elsewhere,” Dimondstein said.

The union says it’s not asking to shut down the program. It wants the counters to be run by postal employees, not workers hired by Staples. The average postal clerk earns about $25 an hour, according to the union, plus a generous package of health and retirement benefits. The Staples post office counters are run by nonunion workers often making little more than the minimum wage.

The Postal Service increasingly has looked to work with the private sector to help increase business. In November, it announced a lucrative deal with Amazon to begin package delivery on Sunday.

So lets be clear, because it is run by the government they have unionized, escalated wages, pensions, and benefits to the point where they can’t be profitable.
So the unions are scared to death to find out that a kid making 8 bucks an hour can do just a good a job as the 25 dollar union dude. I would be nervous if I was them also. 

The agency has struggled for years with declining mail volume, but the lion’s share of its financial plight stems from a 2006 congressional requirement that it make annual $5.6 billion payments to cover expected health care costs for future retirees. It has defaulted on three of those payments. The Postal Service lost $5 billion over the past year, though operating revenue rose 1.2 percent.

Which parcel delivery company said that net income in the third quarter soared to $1.10 billion, or $1.16 per share. That was a penny better than analysts expected and an improvement over the $469 million, or 48 cents per share and has union employees?

I’ll take UPS for $500 Alex