Letter Carriers Refute Health Care Opponents’ Smear Campaign
 |
|
Here’s the latest example of how far opponents of health care reform will go to stop the real changes the nation needs.
An “issue brief” released by the House Republican Caucus this week attacks the United States Postal Service (USPS) and its 700,000 employees nationwide in what the Letter Carriers (NALC) union calls a “transparently partisan attack on the health insurance reform legislation now being considered by Congress.”
Workers across the country are fighting back against the lie-filled campaigns by extremist groups—some funded by corporate donations and backed by extremist Republican leaders who are vowing to kill health care reform.
The NALC is setting the record straight about the misinformation campaign being waged by the Republicans against health care reform. In a public memo, the union issued a point-by-point response to the House Republicans.
NALC President Fredric Rolando says:
This smear cannot go unanswered. This attack on America’s most-trusted agency is deliberately misleading and unjustifiably undermines public support for the Postal Service.
AFL-CIO Executive Council Calls for Round 2 of Economic Recovery
 |
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
|
The nation’s working families and the economy desperately need a second installment on the Obama administration’s economic recovery plan. That plan, says the AFL-CIO Executive Council,
must focus like a laser beam on job creation.
Along with approving an economic policy statement outlining the urgent need for more economic recovery initiatives, the council, convening for a one-day meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C., also welcomed two new members, Letter Carriers (NALC) President Fredric Rolando and AFGE Vice President Rogelio Flores.
The council honored former council members William Young, who recently retired as NALC president, and AFGE Vice President Andrea Brooks, who died in April. To help support the work of the Alliance for Retired Americans, the council proposed the creation of the Preserving Union Values Charitable Foundation.
Although the first round of economic stimulus has made huge strides is shoring up our economy, the council pointed out in its statement that the Bush administration’s economic legacy created such “economic devastation—in finance, housing and jobs,” that
The challenge of fixing this economic mess is enormous—and urgent. Creating good jobs that cannot be outsourced is central to the solution.
Unemployment is expected to hit 10 percent later this year and remain high in 2010. So far 6.6 million jobs have disappeared since the beginning of the recession in 2007, including 1.9 million manufacturing jobs and 1.3 million construction jobs. For those with jobs, wages are stagnant or shrinking and many workers face forced furloughs. As the council statement says:
It is crystal clear that urgent action from the federal government is needed to boost economic growth and jobs, and invest in America’s future.
Fredric Rolando, New Letter Carriers President
 |
||||
|
||||
Fredric Rolando, a former letter carrier in South Miami, Fla., took office July 3 as the new president of the Letter Carriers (NALC). He succeeds William Young, who announced his retirement last month.
Rolando has been NALC executive vice president since 2006. His first union post was shop steward at South Miami’s NALC Branch 1071, and he later became president of Sarasota Branch 2148. He was also director of education for the Florida State Association of Letter Carriers and served as a regional officer and national director of city delivery.
Young served six and a half years as NALC president after beginning his letter carrier career in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where he was elected shop steward in 1969. He held several regional and national positions before being elected NALC president in 2002.
In a farewell message in the July issue of the NALC magazine Postal Record, Young writes:
Although I am clearly biased, letter carriers represent what is best about America—our diversity, our commitment to hard work and community service, and our dedication to serving America.
