Postal workers to get discounts on computers

Officials at the U.S. Postal Service have formed a partnership with two computer companies to help postal employees buy computers at discounted prices. On Feb. 1, the Postal Service announced a new partnership with Compaq Computer Corporation and IBM to begin offering affordably priced computer systems to the agency's 800,000 employees in the spring of 2001. "A lot of our customers use online services and we wanted to get our employees online so they can see what the world is doing," said Bob Anderson, a Postal Service spokesman. "Our long-range goal is to communicate with our employees through the intranet." Anderson said postal officials modeled the partnership after some private-sector deals in which companies gave their employees free computers. The agency decided to find out if any of the computer companies would be willing to bundle their products at a discounted price for postal workers. Twelve companies responded to the query. Compaq and IBM have yet to set prices for computers to be offered to postal workers under the agreement.

The plan crafted by the Postal Service is similar to a bill introduced in the 106th Congress by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Under the "Federal Workforce Digital Access Act" (H.R. 4232), all federal workers with at least one year of service would have received a free home computer and unlimited Internet access. A spokesman for Cummings said he would reintroduce the bill in the 107th Congress. Postal Service employees will eventually be able to use their home computers to log onto the agency's intranet service, accessing personnel paperwork, such as insurance claim forms. The computer companies are also negotiating with Internet Service Providers to provide discounted Internet access to postal workers. "We just want everyone and their families to take advantage of the benefits the Internet provides," Anderson said.