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Senate Panel Approves Postal Nominations
Former Postal Commission Member Gallagher to Be Confirmed as USPS Governor
APWU Web News Article #24-05, May 27, 2005
On May 25, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the nominations of Carolyn L. Gallagher and Louis J. Giuliano to serve on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, and Tony Hammond to serve on the Postal Rate Commission.
The nominees were placed in the positions last year by President Bush through “recess appointments” that expire this fall. If approved by the full Senate — as expected — Gallagher and Giuliano will serve nine-year terms overseeing USPS operations, and Hammond will serve a six-year term on the Postal Rate Commission.
In 2003, Gallagher served as the chairwoman of the Workforce Subcommittee of the President’s Commission on U.S. Postal Service, which recommended that Congress:
Asked at a confirmation hearing by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the committee’s chair, whether she had changed her views now that she had had the benefit of seeing the USPS from the inside, Gallagher said she had not.
When questioned by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) about the apparent inconsistency of calling for regulating the pay of line workers while deregulating the pay of executives, Gallagher responded: “Many people argued to the President’s Commission that postal employees receive a wage that is in excess of the private sector.” USPS executives, on the other hand, receive compensation that is significantly lower than that of their private-sector counterparts, she said.
Akaka also asked about the role that the Postal Regulatory Board would play. “The Workforce Subcommittee recommended that the regulator be involved,” Gallagher said, but “only in determining if postal employees receive total compensation that is in excess of the private sector.”
APWU President William Burrus strongly rejected this suggestion. “The idea that the postal regulator rather than an independent arbitrator should have the power to determine whether postal workers are overpaid is absurd. This would undermine the collective bargaining process.”
In response to written questions submitted by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), Gallagher said that she supported the Commission’s view that legislation should be passed to prohibit the USPS from agreeing to no-layoff protection for future employees.
Gallagher’s views are significant because she testified that the Board of Governors should set management’s strategic goals for contract negotiations. “Clearly, Governor Gallagher will be no friend to postal employees,” Burrus said. “In fact, she seems intent on reducing postal workers’ pay and benefits.”
“The union will continue to monitor any efforts by the Board of Governors to implement these drastic proposals,” he said.
Giuliano, a postal newcomer, is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of ITT Industries, and has served in other corporate executive positions. Before joining the rate commission, Hammond worked in private consulting and direct marketing, and also as Director of Campaign Operations at the Republican National Committee.
