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Postal 'Reform' Update:
Bush Backs 'Comprehensive' Action

(This article first appeared in the Jan./Feb. 2004 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)

Ending speculation about whether the White House would play an active role in passing legislation to revamp the nation's mail system, President Bush recently called on Congress "to enact comprehensive postal reform."

Bush made his announcement during a Dec. 8 meeting with members of the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, and Postmaster General John E. Potter.

Bush did not offer specifics, and the Treasury Department released a statement that outlined only broad principles for reform legislation. The principles, which reflect the recommendations made by the Presidential commission, include giving the USPS the "flexibility" to "reduce costs, set rates, and adjust key aspects of its business."

"This announcement signals the president's commitment to passing legislation to overhaul the Postal Service," said APWU President William Burrus. "His administration has shown that it can be extremely focused in accomplishing its goals, so we must be vigilant in making sure the commission's most onerous proposals are not enacted." Though the union hopes to play a positive role in developing postal legislation, Burrus continued, "We will strongly object if the president's call for 'flexibility' is interpreted to mean curtailing collective bargaining rights and allowing the Postal Regulatory Board to cap wages and cut services for the American people."

Following the Administration's announcement, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) said the principles Bush outlined would guide her in crafting the legislation she plans to introduce in a bipartisan effort with Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) issued a statement expressing his commitment "to making postal industry reform a top priority" in 2004.

PMG Potter Offers Mixed Review

Nearly 11 months after President Bush appointed the commission, Postmaster General John Potter gave his official views for the first time on the panel's proposals for overhauling the nation's mail system and cutting postal labor costs.

Potter gave his views at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Nov. 5. While criticizing some of the proposals, he told the senators that he agreed with most commission recommendations.

Regrettably, Potter endorsed making workers' health care and retirement benefits negotiable - benefits now guaranteed by law - and making mandatory mediation a new step in the collective bargaining process.

Potter sharply criticized, however, allowing the proposed Postal Regulatory Board to establish a wage cap that could not be exceeded in contract negotiations, a step he said "would effectively destroy meaningful collective bargaining." The PRB would also have the authority to alter the USPS universal-service obligation and the postal monopoly - important policy matters that are "best left to Congress," he said.

The Postmaster General rejected the commission's call for authorizing a Postal Network Optimization Commission to decide which processing plants should be closed or consolidated, noting that such an approach would effectively "exclude the Postal Service from the decision-making process." But he declined to provide details about the latest Postal Service plans for closing facilities.

Two weeks after the hearing, Collins and Carper reinforced the General Accounting Office's call for the USPS to release its plan for closing post offices and consolidating processing facilities and transportation networks. In a Nov. 19 letter to Potter, the senators noted that the plan would have "major implications for the Postal Service's costs, employees, and the quality of universal postal service, as well as the affected communities and the mailing industry."

Also noting the Postal Service's lack of communication with key stakeholders on the matter, the senators asked Potter to provide their committee, by April 7, 2004, with "the criteria, process, and data the Service uses to make its decisions, as well as the parties consulted in the plan's development." In addition, they asked Potter to provide a status report on the implementation of the entire USPS Transformation Plan by Feb. 2, 2004.

Before the hearing, Sen. Collins solicited the views of the mailing industry, postal unions and other interested parties on the commission's recommendations. APWU's response is posted at www.apwu.org.

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