Mailers' Advice: Thanks, But No Thanks

Burrus Update #02-08, Feb. 12, 2008

Postal Points, a newsletter of the mailing industry, often includes articles devoted to its views of the activities of postal labor unions. The group is particularly fond of expressing its opinion about actions undertaken by the APWU. On occasion, we have linked to their articles, so that our members may appreciate the views of this part of the mailing public.

One recent article [PDF] in the newsletter of the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association is replete with advice about how the APWU should react to trends affecting the Postal Service. I consider it a bit presumptuous for major mailers to suggest that they know better than APWU members what our union should and should not do to protect our jobs and improve service to the American public, but readers can judge for themselves.

The article offers the APWU this advice:

“Accept that the golden goose can’t lay eggs forever, that the post-postal-reform USPS can’t sustain itself without radical measures to reduce costs and improve productivity and service, and that ignoring such hard realities will lead to the very disruption of your members’ lives that you say you’re trying to prevent. You (collectively) need more than a clue, you need an epiphany, and to start accepting your share of responsibility for good service and ensuring that mail remains affordable – and that includes what’s reasonable to improve productivity and help minimize postal operating costs.”

While approximately 60 percent of postal revenue is paid by major mailers, the postal system that enables them to deliver their bills and advertisements was paid for by the citizens. The postal network that they use so prodigiously was built and paid for by the American people. Appropriately, the law governing postal operations begins with the words, “The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the government.”

William Burrus
President

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