Printer-Friendly Page
Organization Department |
Is Your Co-Worker a Member of APWU?
Martha Shunn-King
Organization Department Director
(This article was first published in the January/February 2012 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
If you are reading this article, chances are you are a member of the APWU or you are related to someone who is. But what about your co-workers? Are they union members? If not, how about urging them to join?
|
After all, organizing is every member’s job. In order to make the union stronger, we need all of the workers we represent to belong to the union. With your help, we can make this happen.
We started the Are You In? organizing drive in July, and since August we have been focusing on signing up Postal Support Employees (PSEs). Our efforts have been quite successful. Thousands of PSEs have joined our ranks, with the majority signing up at orientation.
But there are still many PSEs who haven’t yet been approached by the union. That’s because management in some cases neglected to arrange an orientation session for many former casuals, postmaster reliefs and other employees in small offices who were already on the USPS rolls.
We have informed the Postal Service that under the terms of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement, these employees are entitled to an orientation, and orientation sessions are being arranged.
Please be on the look-out for new employees and welcome them into the fold.
Military Veterans
Soon we will begin to focus on special sectors of the workforce, with the goal of signing up non-members. One of the first groups will be military veterans.
The APWU has been fighting hard to get veterans hired and to protect the jobs of those who are already working for the Postal Service. We have run TV commercials and newspaper ads honoring veterans and encouraging Congress to make sure they have jobs when they return home from war.
As the ads point out, the Postal Service employs more veterans than any other civilian employer. Yet, some legislators in Congress want to lay off 120,000 postal workers, including tens of thousands of veterans.
We will send each veteran a letter of invitation to join, and we will send each local a list of the veterans who are non-members in their area.
The campaign will also target workers who have not taken they changed crafts. Some former members of our sister unions think they have to wait until their anniversary date to switch. In our invitation letter, we will spell out the process to make it easier for them to join the APWU and so that they avoid paying extra membership dues.
From there we will highlight each craft. We have already met with the stewards for postal nurses and sent out letters inviting non-members to join.
The Fight of Our Lives
The Postal Service’s financial crisis threatens our future, and several bills pending in Congress would destroy us.
We have been sending mailings to union members asking them to get active in legislative affairs, and recently we have been mailing to non-members as well. There are two reasons for doing so: We need everyone to help save the USPS, and we want non-members to see what we are doing to protect their jobs in hopes that they will be encouraged to join us.
While you are busy getting the non-members to join the APWU, talk to your friends about the importance of unions. A Harvard University study revealed that rising inequality in income over the past 30 years is directly correlated to a decline in union membership. A large union presence in an area can raise wages for all workers, which in turn builds a stronger community and economy.
