APWU locals are gearing up for the nationwide day of action to Save America’s Postal Service on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., at locations across the country.

Together, the APWU and the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association will rally in every congressional district in the country to tell the real story about the Postal Service’s financial crisis and to build support for legislation that would restore financial stability to the Postal Service.

At the rallies on Sept. 27, the unions will be asking legislators to co-sponsor to H.R. 1351, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA). Where lawmakers have already signed on, the rallies will thank them for their support and ask them to pledge to do everything in their power to ensure its passage.

The rallies have already garnered press coverage in dozens of locations. In Sarasota, FL, for example, the Brandenton Herald reported that hundreds of local postal workers are expected to take part in the rally. Radio or newspaper interviews have also been conducted in Hattiesburg, MS; Monroe, LA; Fort Smith, AR; and Fort Myers, FL. Coverage is expected in many media markets on Tuesday.

Locals that haven’t already done so are being encouraged to notify the media about the rallies. Sample press releases [PDF] are available on the Save America’s Postal Service’s Web site, which the unions developed to provide information about the events.

To boost attendance at the rallies, locals are urged to reach out to community leaders, small business owners and other allies who rely on the Postal Service, as well as family members, friends, and neighbors.

APWU locals are also encouraged to keep the national union office informed of their participation in the rallies and to send high-resolution photos to sdavidow@apwu.org.

via Last Minute Preparations Underway for Rallies to Save America’s Postal Service.

The Motor Vehicle Service Division of the APWU has received from the USPS a list of 330 new duty assignments [PDF] that will be converted from Highway Contract Routes (HCR) to the Postal Vehicle Service (PVS).

The assignments are part of the 600 HCR routes that the union and management agreed would be turned over to the APWU bargaining unit during negotiations over the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The 330 assignment are from 56 routes that are being returned to the PVS. Both the USPS and APWU agree that this is a partial list, and that the remaining duty assignments will be converted as well.

The conversion of 330 duty assignments gives more work to APWU members than has been converted from HCR to PVS in the entire history of the APWU.

The MVS Division is requesting more information on the duty assignments. The document generates more questions than answers, but it is a starting point. As MVS receives answers, we will release them to National Business Agents and the field.

via 330 Motor Vehicle Jobs Returned to APWU Bargaining Unit.

A bill that would destroy the Postal Service as we know it passed a House subcommittee on Sept. 21 by a vote of seven to four, along party lines. Republicans voted in favor of the bill; Democrats voted against it. The bill, H.R. 2309, was co-sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), chairman of the postal subcommittee.

Prior to the vote, Rep. Issa amended the bill, which he first introduced on June 23, to include numerous provisions that are even more controversial than those contained in the original version:

The amended version includes a provision to grant authority to a newly-established control board to carry out layoffs, in spite of any provisions in collective bargaining agreements that might limit them. In addition, it says that employees who are eligible for retirement must be laid off before employees who are ineligible, and dictates that retirement-eligible employees with the longest service must be separated first. The new language also forbids the payment of severance pay to retirement-eligible employees.

The new version of the bill continues provisions from the original that would empower a newly-created “solvency authority” to unilaterally cut wages and abolish benefits.

The amendment doubles – from $1 billion to $2 billion – the value of mail processing facility closures mandated by the bill, and it continues the provision found in the original version which requires $1 billion worth of post office closures. The new version also includes many changes to mail delivery, such as a requirement to reduce “door delivery” by 75 percent within two years.

In addition, the amendment includes several changes that would negatively affect workers who are injured on duty, including one that would cut the monthly compensation of totally disabled employees from 66.66 percent to 50 percent, once they meet the age and service requirements for retirement.

Democrats on the subcommittee argued strenuously against the bill and offered several amendments of their own; all of them were defeated by the Republican majority.

APWU President Cliff Guffey denounced the bill. “This is a brazen attempt to dismantle the United States Postal Service and render it ripe for privatization,” he said. “It is a blatant attack on unionized workers.

“The bill does not address the cause of the Postal Service’s financial crisis. It does nothing to correct the requirement to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees, which forces the USPS to fund a 75-year liability in a period of just 10 years,” Guffey said. No other government agency or private company is required to make such payments, which cost the USPS approximately $5.5 billion annually. “The bill also fails to address billions of dollars in USPS overpayments to federal pension accounts,” he noted.

“The Postal Service is a critical part of our economy. It is the center of a $1.2 trillion industry that employs 8 million people, including printers, mailers, and other businesses that rely on the Postal Service,” Guffey said.

“The post office is where the flag flies across America, and it is an integral part of our national life. Yet the bill would destroy this great institution – shutting thousands of offices, slashing service, and punishing workers.”

Guffey called on all union members to participate in rallies set for Tuesday, Sept. 27, to Save America’s Postal Service. Events are planned in every congressional district across the country, as part of a campaign by the four postal unions to win support for legislation to avert a collapse of the nation’s mail system.

The APWU is working with the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association to organize the activities. (Please send high-resolution photos of your event to sdavidow@apwu.org.) To find the location of the rally nearest you, visit www.SaveAmericasPostal Service.org.

The unions are urging support for H.R. 1351, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA). The Lynch bill would prevent the financial collapse of the USPS – without closing thousands of post offices, eliminating hundreds of mail processing facilities, delaying mail delivery, laying off 120,000 workers, cutting postal workers’ pay, or ending collective bargaining rights.

H.R. 1351 would allow the Postal Service to apply billions of dollars in pension overpayments to the congressional mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees.

“We are fighting for our lives,” Guffey said. “I urge every APWU member to attend a rally, and to ask his or her member of Congress to support H.R. 1351.”

via Issa’s ‘Postal Destruction’ Bill.

Vowing to continue to do “everything in our power to prevent the destruction of the Postal Service,” the APWU National Executive Board has approved a special dues assessment on Sept. 20 that will begin in Pay Period 21-2011 and continue through Pay Period 18-2012. Career APWU members will be assessed $1 per pay period; Postal Support Employees will be assessed 50 cents per pay period.

The purpose of the special assessment is to support the union’s ongoing legislative and media campaign to protect APWU-represented workers and defend postal service to the American people.

“These efforts are costly, but they are absolutely necessary,” APWU President Cliff Guffey said. “The debate in Washington over the solution to the USPS financial crisis will have a profound effect on our members. We must do everything we can to ensure that the Postal Service survives, along with our jobs. We cannot allow misguided legislators – or USPS management – to dismantle the Postal Service.”

Locals that wish to assume pay the assessment for their members must notify the APWU Secretary-Treasurer in writing. The assessment expires at the 2012 National Convention, which could vote to extend it.

via Executive Board Approves Dues Assessment.

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.

This APWU TV ad will air on CNN, MSNBC and Fox.

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.

New York, NY, September 15, 2011 – In the face of the financial crisis that the United States Postal Service is facing, the New York Metro Area Postal Union, APWU, AFL-CIO, led by President Clarice Torrence, has called upon the Postmaster General and CEO of the United States Postal Service, Patrick R. Donahoe, to step down from his position immediately. If Postmaster General Donahoe refuses to resign, the union calls upon the Postal Board of Governors to fire him.

Postmaster Donahoe took the oath of office as the 73rd Postmaster General of the United States on January 14, 2011 after having been appointed to the position by the Board of Governors on December 7, 2010. He had served as Deputy Postmaster General under Postmaster General Potter since 2005. In April of this year, Donahoe successfully negotiated a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with the American Postal Workers Union. Donahoe praised the agreement, “We worked together to negotiate a responsible agreement that is in the best interest of our customers, our employees and the future of the Postal Service.” He took credit for the agreement which he claimed would save the USPS $3.8 billion in labor costs. Less than three months after the agreement was signed, Donahoe called upon Congress to nullify part of the contract to allow him to layoff 120,000 postal workers.

The New York Metro Area Postal Union concludes from his actions that Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe is either a well-meaning incompetent or a duplicitous agent of forces who actively want to destroy the Postal Service and have it privatized. Whichever case is true, Donahoe is violating his oath of office and failing to meet the requirements of his position to be responsible for the overall operation of the Postal Service. Donahoe has contracts remaining to be negotiated with the three remaining postal unions. NYMAPU questions how the other postal unions can bargain in good faith with Postmaster Donahoe after his actions following the contract with the APWU.

New York Metro Area Postal Union is also calling for an independent investigation into the unprecedented sweetheart retirement package that was given to Donahoe’s predecessor, former Postmaster John E. Potter. Potter stepped down on December 3, 2010. He was retiring with $3.1 million in pension benefits accumulated during his 32 year career. Potter was also able to use a separate pension established for him by the Postal Board of Governors in 2001 based on performance goals that was worth $1.35 million when it was frozen in 2007 in favor of direct performance incentives. Potter’s base salary in 2010 was $273,296 but he had already built up $881,000 in deferred compensation in awards and incentives that he could draw out in annual installments once retired.

If the Postal Service is in such dire straights, as is being reflected by Postmaster Donahoe’s recent testimony, there needs to be an investigation into why former Postmaster Potter received such elaborate performance bonuses and awards in his retirement package while leaving the Postal Service on the brink of failure.

It is the position of the New York Metro Area Postal Union that the current financial crisis in the Postal Service is caused by mandates imposed by Congress in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and the overpayments into the CSRS and FERS retirement plans that have been expropriated from the Postal Service by the Treasury. H.R. 1351 introduced by Representative Stephen Lynch will correct those inequities and enable the Postal Service to carry out its functions without closing post offices, cutting back on delivery and eliminating hundreds of thousands of living wage jobs in the middle of a recession.

APWU President Cliff Guffey condemned USPS plans to study 252 mail processing facilities for possible closure, saying widespread closures would “dismantle the mail-processing network.” On Sept. 14, the USPS released a list of offices where studies will take place.

“The Postal Service should be urging Congress to address the cause of its problems – not slashing service and demolishing its network,” the union president said.

A 2006 law has pushed the USPS to brink of insolvency by imposing a burden on the Postal Service that no other government agency or company bears. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act requires the Postal Service to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees. The mandate, which forces the agency to pre-fund a 75-year liability in just 10 years, costs the USPS more than $5.5 billion annually.

“The mail processing network is a major asset,” Guffey noted. “Destroying it is misguided and counterproductive.

“Degrading service is not the answer to the Postal Service’s problems,” he said, noting that extensive closures would force the USPS to reduce delivery standards and delay mail delivery. “The Postal Service should be looking for ways to strengthen service and increase its relevance in the age of digital communication.”

Guffey said he was extremely displeased by the Postal Service’s refusal to provide the union with any advance notice of its plans.

Mandatory Standup Talk

21CPW.com has posted a copy of the list of processing facilities set to be considered for closing by the USPS. The list was apparently faxed (is the USPS the only company that still faxes things?) to the unions yesterday at 5PM.

Note that there are multiple consolidation options listed in some cases. For example, each of the three plants closest to Boston is listed as a candidate for consolidation into one of the other two. Presumably at least one of them will remain open.

USPS Plant Consolidation List

APWU President Cliff Guffey will testify before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Sept. 6 about the financial crisis facing the Postal Service and what Congress must do to address it.

“I will tell members of the Senate Committee that the future of the Postal Service is in their hands. They have a solemn duty to save the nation’s mail system, which is the nerve center of a $1 trillion industry” the union president said.

Guffey is the only union president that was invited to testify; therefore, the four postal unions have agreed that his oral statement to the committee will represent the views of all bargaining unit employees. All of the unions will submit written testimony. In addition to the APWU, the postal unions are the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association.

The APWU president has been asked to focus his testimony on USPS proposals for legislation that would abrogate the union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. The USPS is asking Congress to enact laws that would separate postal workers from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and from federal retirement plans and that would allow the agency to lay off 120,000 employees.

Guffey has denounced the proposals as a “reckless assault on the Postal Service and on postal employees.”

“The Postal Service is in danger of financial collapse,” the union president noted, “but the cause of its financial difficulties are often misunderstood.”

The problem is a 2006 law that is pushing the Postal Service into bankruptcy, he pointed out. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act imposes a burden on the USPS that no other government agency or private company bears. It requires the Postal Service to “pre-fund” the healthcare benefits of future retirees and forces the USPS to pay for a 75-year obligation in just 10 years – at a cost of more than $5 billion annually.

Meanwhile, Guffey noted, two independent auditors have found that, due to a faulty funding formula, the USPS has overpaid its pension accounts by more than $50 billion.

“Congress must get at the cause of the Postal Service’s financial crisis,” he said. “Lawmakers must allow the Postal Service to apply the pension overpayments to the pre-funding requirement.

“The APWU will vehemently oppose any attempt to destroy the collective bargaining rights of postal employees or tamper with our recently negotiated contract,” Guffey said. “Crushing postal workers and slashing service will not solve the Postal Service’s financial crisis.”

The hearing will be Webcast live by the committee. To watch the hearing, visit the committee’s Web site. Video will be available approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the proceedings.

Other witnesses scheduled to testify are: Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe; Jonathan Foley, Director of Planning and Policy Analysis for the Office of Personnel Management; Phillip R. Herr, Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues for the Government Accountability Office; Louis M. Atkins, President of the National Association of Postal Supervisors; Ellen Levine, Editorial Director of Hearst Magazines, and Tonda F. Rush, Director of Public Policy for the National Newspaper Association.

From the American Postal Workers Union:

In accordance with the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement, the USPS has agreed to establish 740 new assignments in Vehicle Maintenance Facilities. A list provided to the union on Aug. 30 specifies the locations for the new positions and indicates whether they are Level 8, 9, or 10 Automotive Technician or Lead Technician positions.

Under the terms of the contract, the new jobs are being created so that members of the APWU bargaining unit can perform work that was previously done by contractors.

“This is good news for the APWU,” said Motor Vehicle Service Craft Director Bob Pritchard.

“Locals should immediately submit information request forms asking local management what subcontracted duties will be brought in-house to provide work for the individuals assigned to the new jobs,” he said. “That is the only way to ensure these new jobs are being posted properly.

“If additional positions are needed because of general understaffing, additional jobs — beyond 740 on the list — should be posted.”

11-096-mvsjobs-110830