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APWU a Steady Influence in Times of Flux

(This article first appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

In the fight for good pay and benefits, and for the rights of individuals in the postal workplace, the one constant has been the union.

I am writing this article just before taking my oath of office for the third time as APWU Executive Vice President, and cannot help but reflect on the many changes within our Postal Service, our union and our lives.

The plants, the methods, the machines, and the incredible volume of mail simply would not be fathomable to those who were old-timers when I started with them in 1971. Today, there are still many who might remember what window service was like before the Postal Service’s unstated goal to drive away individual customers, which led to the creation of FedEx and UPS stores.

The whole world, of course, has changed. New dangers and adversaries have reared their heads. The price of oil has skyrocketed, while the price of homes rose and then plunged. Religions built on love seem to be ignoring not only love but forgiveness. The government has gone back and forth between left and right. I personally have gone from just two beautiful daughters to two beautiful daughters and four beautiful grandsons.

Change is seen everywhere. But there has been one constant: our union, fighting for the rights of individuals in the postal workplace, securing pay and benefits that have supported us in a secure lifestyle far above average in modern-day America.

Rest assured that I am very proud of my small part in the union’s efforts. I believe each member should be proud for shaping his or her own destiny. I thank each of you.

And to those of you who have given your time by taking part in meetings or by serving as a steward, you have been front and center in an area where citizens of the United States exercise one of their greatest rights, the right to organize in a union in order to better their workplace lives.

The Consolidation Saga

The Postal Service always seems to come up with plans that help its friends in the mailing industry at the expense of workers and the mailing public.

I can think of no situation in which the average member has played a more significant role in the workplace than as a participant in a local’s fight to halt consolidation into another facility.

We have had great success — in the past two years, more than three dozen of the 50-odd USPS consolidation initiatives were terminated or placed on hold — and the battle continues. Whenever it gets a chance, the Postal Service comes up with plans that seem to help its friends in the mailing industry, at the expense of the mailing public and the workers.

In late October, I had the opportunity to observe two different locals as they made the case against consolidation at public hearings convened to let the public have its say — to finally have “input” on the plan to move the processing of outgoing mail into a new facility situated between the cities of Detroit and Flint.

These two locals — the Detroit District Area Local and the Flint Area Local — are very different in size but not in determination. The efforts put forth by the locals’ leadership (Flint APWU President Debbie Lutz and Detroit APWU President Dwight Boudreaux) were impressive.

In the short time between when the hearings were announced and when they were actually held, both locals rallied community support from mayors’ offices, city councils, county commissioners, state legislators, U.S. representatives, other unions, and private businesses and individual consumers.

The result was that the postal representatives at the “hearings” heard the communities offer a resounding NO! to consolidation. I am positive that an unbiased observer would have to expect a decision in favor of the communities and the workers — it’s certainly what they deserve.

Meanwhile, we can only wait to see what the “unbiased” Postal Service will do:Will it choose to serve the communities or cater to Big Business?

Okies and Immigrants

Their rural homeland was depressed — there was no work because the land was arid, and unable to sustain crops or livestock. The migrants flocked to California in search of work in order to be able to provide for their families. Many workers went alone at first, and then sent money home to their families.

In California, the bosses took advantage of the readily available pool of cheaper labor, which angered local workers who were either laid off or had to accept lower pay. The migrant workers were resented and even attacked by those they had displaced and other residents, and beaten and abused by their bosses. The workers could turn to no one. They had to work.

While this could describe the situation of many immigrants in America today, I am describing migrant farm workers from Oklahoma — the “Okies” of the 1930s.

The Okies of the Depression were despised throughout the West, solely because they would take the work that Big Business greedily gave them — after all, lower wages translated easily into greater profits.

How ironic it is that 70 years later Oklahoma has passed what is believed to be the toughest legislation of any state concerning illegal immigrants. The law includes sweeping measures against workers, but almost no provisions to punish the owners of the companies that hire, abuse, and profit from illegal immigrants. The workers may not look the same, but how little it has changed for the “bosses” from the days of old.

While it can be argued that the employment of illegal immigrants depresses wages for working Americans — including legal immigrants — the main thing it does is drive up profits for employers. I feel it’s the employers who should be penalized, not the workers.

The employment opportunities for illegals would dry up if the employers who exploit them were punished, and they would go back home. They, like the Okies who went west, come here for work; if they can not work, they will not come.

(By the way, as many of you may know, I am an Okie myself, by birth.)

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