Executive Vice President
Clarence A. Wall, Jr.
The APWU has launched Phase 2 of its television ad campaign, in conjunction with the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, APWU President Cliff Guffey announced. Spots will air on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. The ad will run for approximately two months.
The ad is designed to explain – in just 30 seconds – the true cause of the Postal Service’s financial crisis.“The Postal Service has been recording financial losses, but not for the reasons you might think,” the ad says. It quickly identifies the problem – a 2006 law that imposes a $5 billion annual burden on the Postal Service that no other agency or company bears. At the same time, the Postal Service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts, it says. The ad concludes with a simple message, Congress created this problem, and Congress can fix it. The USPS’s difficulties have gotten the attention of legislators and the news media, Guffey said. But, unfortunately, the cause of the problem is frequently misunderstood. It is crucial that we tell the real story.”
The ad is intended to help win support for legislation that would address the Postal Service’s crisis. H.R. 1351, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), would do that, Guffey said, without cutting pay, reducing benefits, eliminating collective bargaining rights, or slashing service. It has more than 200 co-sponsors. However, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has blocked consideration of H.R. 1351. Instead, he introduced H.R. 2309, which would be devastating for the Postal Service, the American people, and postal employees, Guffey said. Rep. Issa’s bill would order $1 billion worth of post office closures in the first year and $1 billion worth of facility closures in the second year. It also would empower a board to unilaterally cut wages, abolish benefits, and end protection against layoffs.
In addition to the ad campaign, the postal unions have joined forces in an effort to Save America’s Postal Service. Rallies are set for Sept. 27 in every congressional district. For more information, visit www.apwu.org or SaveAmericasPostalService.org.
While automation has had a dramatic effect on the nation’s mail-delivery system, we have been able to make a solid case for preserving our jobs because our productivity has increased along with USPS productivity. We have responded to increased automation in mail processing by enforcing the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and by making sure that the agreement in turn requires the USPS to live up to past practices and its own rules, regulations, employee manuals, and handbooks.
The informational handbook, When Excessing Occurs, Know Your Rights and Benefits, is a summary of your protection against excessing.
Click here to download a copy of “When Excessing Occurs: Know Your Rights and Benefits.”
Outsourcing
The Postal Service is unable to demonstrate that it saves money by outsourcing, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, because it has no comprehensive mechanism to measure savings.
“Without cost-savings data, postal managers, stakeholders and Congress cannot assess the risk and value of outsourcing,” the GAO concluded. Nonetheless, the USPS will continue to “explore outsourcing opportunities” and is considering another major outsourcing initiative involving its bulk mail processing network, the report noted.
The GAO recommended that the Postmaster General establish a process to track the results of outsourcing activities that are subject to collective bargaining and report the results to Congress. Although the Postal Service generally agreed with the report’s findings, the USPS disagreed with recommendation to provide Congress with the information about the results of outsourcing.