ABSTRACT
The United States Postal Service deserves attention because it is the largest government-owned utility operating in the private sector. Experience to date should raise a warning flag to both postal management and employees that the Postal Service needs a new form of organization that can cope and respond in today's rapidly paced communications industry. Since reorganization, postal wages have increased faster than both the consumer price index and the wages of civil service workers. A change in attitude toward the Postal Service salary structure seems to be emerging, and because salary discrepancies are gaining visibility, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization confrontation takes on unique significance for the Postal Service. The Frederick Kappel Commission estimated “at least twenty-five percent of the cost of postal operations could be saved by organizational changes giving postal managers authority to bargain with unions concerning mechanization and productivity increases.” The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
