Join the Fight to Save America’s Postal Service
The nation’s postal unions and allies are fighting back against proposals to close post offices and mail processing centers, and change USPS regulations to eliminate overnight delivery of first class mail, and change two-day delivery to three days. You can join by signing a petition to your senators and representatives to preserve the nation’s mail service. Click here or here to sign the petition.
The petition is part of the Save America’s Postal Service campaign, a joint effort of the Postal Workers (APWU), Letter Carriers (NALC), Mail Handlers, an affiliate of the Laborers (LIUNA), and the Rural Letter Carriers.
Over the next several weeks, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the “super committee,” is supposed to produce a plan to reduce the federal deficit. It may include a Read the rest of this entry »
Thousands Rallied to Support Postal Workers, Save 120,000 Jobs
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Thousands of postal workers and their supporters held rallies in 492 locations across the country yesterday to protect the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and save 120,000 jobs.
Members of the four USPS employee unions—the Postal Workers (APWU), Letter Carriers (NALC), Mail Handlers, an affiliate of the Laborers (LIUNA), and the Rural Letter Carriers—and our allies held events in every congressional district as part of a national “Save America’s Post Office” day of action.
Under the guise of a “budgetary crisis,” some in Congress are going after the USPS, proposing massive cuts and job cuts—including laying off 120,000 workers, closing thousands of post offices, eliminating Saturday mail service and closing mail processing facilities. The rallies yesterday urged lawmakers to save the USPS by supporting H.R. 1351. Introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), the bill would restore financial stability to the Postal Service.
Send Condolence Cards for Job Loss? Maybe Just Support Postal Workers
Maybe this is Hallmark’s answer to threats to cut more than 200,000 U.S. Postal Service jobs, end Saturday delivery and shut down post offices. The greeting card company now offers condolence cards for people who have lost their jobs.
“It’s hard to know what to say at a sensitive time like this,” one card’s cover says over an illustration of—well, it looks like cartoon pigs in an unemployment line. “How about: ‘I’m buying!’”
Another advises: “Don’t think of it as losing your job. Think of it as a time out between stupid bosses.”
If you want to do your part to support mail service and the people who make it happen, join postal workers Tuesday, Sept. 27, in a rally to Save America’s Postal Service. Rallies are planned across the country. Find one near you here.
APWU: Crushing Workers Will Not Solve Postal Service’s Financial Woes
Crushing postal workers and slashing service will not solve the U.S. Postal Service’s financial crisis, Postal Workers (APWU) President Cliff Guffey said in response to the announcement today that the Postal Service will seek congressional support to cut 120,000 jobs, break its labor contract signed earlier this year and withdraw from the federal health and retirement plans.
“Congress created this mess and Congress can fix it,” Guffey said.
The USPS economic crisis is the result of a provision of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund the health care benefits of future retirees — a burden no other government agency or private company bears.
The legislation requires the USPS to fund a 75-year liability over a 10-year period, and that requirement costs the USPS more than $5.5 billion per year.
Guffey also pointed out that “the federal government is holding billions of dollars in postal overpayments to its pension accounts.” Read the rest of this entry »
Letter Carriers Refute Health Care Opponents’ Smear Campaign
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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.
Jobs Don’t Live Here Anymore
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The unemployment data is due tomorrow, and it’s likely to be bad, with an expected 300,000 to 320,000 jobs lost in July, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and others. That’s a big problem. But unfortunately, when it comes to getting the nation back to work, tomorrow’s unemployment rate isn’t the biggest problem we face.
What’s really troubling is long-term unemployment.
EPI economists see the economic stimulus as alleviating the jobs crisis created under Bush. In fact, the economic recovery program already has saved or created some 750,000 jobs. Plus, says John Irons, EPI director of research and policy, the gross domestic product (GDP) report last week showing GDP shrunk far less in the second quarter of this year (-1 percent) than the first quarter (-6.4 percent). That means
we’re beginning to see the fingerprints of the economic recovery package.
