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A Serious Threat, An Urgent Need
(This article by APWU President Bill Burrus first appeared in the May/June 2003 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
Is your job worth the price of a stamp?
Your response to this simple question will help determine whether we can defeat adverse recommendations from the President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal Service and proposals for “postal reform” legislation that are likely to target postal workers.
In the last three issues of this magazine, my columns have focused on the activities of the President’s Commission, and many News Service bulletins since the commission’s creation late last year have featured the union’s analysis of what is at stake. These reports have been intended to familiarize the membership with the matters under consideration and the union’s efforts to influence the outcome.
The purpose in sharing this information has been to involve you, the member, and to solicit your support. Our strength as a union is in the collective efforts of our members. But without more direct involvement, we will not be successful. Your job as a postal employee may be changed forever, and you may not like it.
Early on, much of the union’s attention focused on preparing and presenting testimony to the commission. Now, we need the active involvement of our members. This can take many forms — from visiting elected officials, to talking to friends and neighbors about the threat the commission’s recommendations could pose to their service, to explaining our concerns and seeking support from organizations we belong to.
One of the most important contributions you can make is to support APWU COPA, the union’s Committee On Political Action.
Expressing Our Concerns to Congress
In the months ahead, the union must focus on expressing our concerns to members of Congress, who ultimately will decide our future. But without political contributions, our access to Congress will be limited and our influence will be diminished.
We need your COPA contribution NOW. Without your monetary contribution and your active involvement, our chances of success in the expected battle will be limited. With your support, we can put up a good fight.
Your representatives in Congress must constantly raise money to ensure their success in the next election and to help their party win control of government. To achieve these objectives, they raise large sums of money. The individuals and groups who contribute to their fundraising efforts are providing important help and the efforts of contributors are recognized.
It doesn’t help our cause that the APWU’s political contributions are presently the lowest of any group with an interest in postal reform.
Whose Message Is Heard?
The major mailers and mail consolidators — who have an economic interest in keeping the wages of postal workers as low as possible — are major contributors to political campaigns. So are those who wish to see more and more government privatized. It is expected that their message will be heard and seriously considered by legislators. Each of these entities has an interest in a changed Postal Service that is contrary to the interests of average citizens, small businesses and postal employees.
APWU must increase its contributions to ensure that our supporters in Congress stay in office and remain active on our behalf.
The events over the next few months could change your job dramatically. By July 31, the President’s Commission will issue its report and recommend numerous changes in the operations of the Postal Service. It is impossible to predict the specific contents of the report, but many of the changes presently under consideration would have drastic consequences for employees represented by the APWU.
Although the report itself will not have the force of law, it is expected to receive the president’s support and to be forwarded to Congress for the introduction of legislation. With the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House under the control of a single party, defeating the commission’s recommendations poses a significant challenge.
Major Commission Considerations
The major issues under consideration by the commission include:
Each of these changes would impact you directly. Limiting universal service at uniform rates would adversely affect service and rates for small businesses and individual citizens. It would also have adverse affects on postal revenues and jobs.
Below-cost discounts for big mailers and advertisers rob the Postal Service of the revenue it needs to support its large infrastructure. Increasing these discounts would further threaten the viability of the Postal Service.
The expansion of work-sharing would transfer many postal functions – especially mail processing, transportation, retail, and maintenance – to private-sector firms operating on a for-profit basis. Work now performed by postal workers would be performed by low-wage workers without benefits.
Changes to collective bargaining would inhibit opportunities for postal employees to improve their working conditions and their standard of living. USPS management, Congress, or the President could be given the final authority to determine wages, hours and working conditions, with no referral to binding arbitration concerning issues in dispute.
These changes, if recommended by the commission and approved by Congress, would have a devastating impact on the lives of postal employees.
Everyone Equally Affected
In part because the union has been successful in providing an improved standard of living and secure employment for all APWU-covered workers, non-members see no reason to participate in union affairs and many union members believe that simply paying union dues is a sufficient contribution for job protection. This will be changed by the commission report – everyone will be equally affected by legislative proposals to modify the Postal Service.
This will not be a union-management fight but a political fight. It cannot be fought in the grievance procedure. It will be won or lost in the political arena. For that reason, a healthy COPA fund is essential.
There is no excuse for not contributing to COPA. Unless we are successful, those material things that demand your full attention will not be supported by your postal employment. A small contribution (for example, $2) each pay period will strengthen the union’s position in this important struggle.
At a minimum, I am requesting that each local president assume the responsibility of raising the equivalent of 37 cents — the price of a stamp — per pay period from each member through August for the APWU COPA Fund. I would hope that many members will give more — much more.
We expect legislation reflecting the commission’s recommendations to be introduced in September. By then, the union must be in a better position to gain access to the members of the House and the Senate to explain the employee’s side in this debate. Without your contribution, we will be on the outside looking in, depending on others who rely on postal services to protect our interests.
Give to COPA and give generously. The job you save may be your own. Click here to make a contribution today!
ABOUT COPA
APWU COPA, the union’s Committee on Political Action, was created to raise voluntary political campaign contributions from our union’s active, retired and Auxiliary members to support the campaigns of candidates for public office.
Campaign contributions from members of organizations who give through a fund such as a political action committee often have a major influence on congressional elections, thereby influencing votes on many important issues.
The APWU must have a strong voice in political affairs, and we must support the elected officials who advance our interests and help defeat those who oppose them. If we sit on the sidelines, organizations that oppose our goals will go unchecked.
Simply put, our union has too much at stake to turn a blind eye.
