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Commission Likely to Target
Postal Pay, Union Rights

(This article first appeared in the May/June 2003 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)

Before the Great Postal Strike of 1970, postal workers had no right to bargain collectively with their employer over wages, benefits, and working conditions, and they had little recourse when facing management abuses. They were also chronically underpaid. In March 1970, full-time employees earned about $6,200 to start, and workers with 21 years of service averaged only $8,440 — barely enough to make ends meet. Many postal workers qualified for food stamps.

The President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service is receiving testimony that suggests that many influential people yearn for the old days, when postal workers depended entirely on Congress for wage increases.

In the old days, the raises never seemed to amount to much, particularly in high-cost urban areas. From 1967 to 1969, postal wages were not increased at all, although Congress did raise its own pay 41 percent during that time. In 1968, the Kappel Commission, a panel that had been studying postal reform during President Johnson's administration, concluded that postal workers deserved the same collective bargaining rights afforded to private-sector workers under the National Labor Relations Act. Congress failed to act on the commission's report.

The Great Postal Strike

On March 18, 1970, New York City postal workers took matters into their own hands and walked off the job, soon to be joined by 200,000 union brothers and sisters in 30 major cities. Mail service ground to a halt and the plight of postal workers was brought to public attention. Within days, postal workers were granted a 6 percent wage increase, retroactive to the previous December.

The successful job action led to the enactment of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which gave unions the right to negotiate with management over their wages, benefits and working conditions. In lieu of the right to strike, a binding arbitration process was established for resolving contract disputes. Postal workers were awarded an additional 8 percent raise and the amount of time it took to reach the top step declined from 21 years to eight years.

In 1971, the newly formed American Postal Workers Union signed its first contract with the Postal Service. Five separate $250 raises were added to postal workers' basic pay between July 1971 and January 1973, bringing a starting postal worker's salary up to $8,488 - slightly more than a 21-year employee had been getting just three years earlier.

Turning Back the Clock

Today, anti-union conservatives and the mailing industry are pressuring the president's commission to curtail the collective bargaining rights that postal workers fought so hard for. Since the initial gains three decades ago, postal workers have continued to win moderate raises, usually just enough to keep pace with inflation.

Yet some claim that postal workers are overcompensated. Many observers expect the panel to overlook the Postal Service's habit of subsidizing big business and advertising mailers through below-cost postage discounts. The commission is expected, instead, to make the unions the scapegoat for the Postal Service's recent financial problems.

The commission won't be showing its cards until it presents its report to the president, due July 31, 2003. Congress could accept or modify any of the panel's recommendations on privatization, universal postal service, uniform rates, collective bargaining, and other issues.

Although it is not easy to predict the outcome, it won't be too surprising if the commission, the Bush administration, the GOP-controlled Congress, the mailing industry, and the Postal Service's competitors try to make postal workers the fall guy.

The following outlines just some of the ways that postal workers' pay and collective bargaining rights could come under attack.

The Over-Compensation Angle

There's no question that postal workers are paid what they earn today because of collective bargaining. Attacks on postal workers begin with attacks on the system itself.

Among those who suggest that postal workers are overpaid is Murray Comarow, a Washington-based lawyer and the former staff director of the Kappel Commission. At the presidential commission's Feb. 20 hearing, Comarow testified that postal workers' wages are the result of generous awards by arbitrators, who "are not driven by the same values or the same dynamics that drive postal managers."

While cautioning the panel that the postal unions' supporters in Congress have rendered previous proposals to roll back collective bargaining rights "dead on arrival," Comarow noted that the current political climate makes it easier for the panel to recommend "clear and bold changes" to labor-management rules.

Comarow and others who testified at the February hearing apparently place great stock in reports by Michael Wachter, a Postal Service economist who claims postal workers are overpaid by "25 to 30 percent." USPS management has been citing Wachter's reports during contract negotiations for more than 20 years, but in every arbitration case since 1984, arbitrators have granted wage and COLA increases. In the most recent case, the arbitrator's award included upgrades as well.

"Under the current system," said APWU President William Burrus, professional arbitrators selected by both parties render a decision after hearing all the evidence. If Congress takes control of wage increases, it is likely to use the Wachter reports as justification for limiting wages increases."

Denying Union Rights

At the recently created Department of Homeland Security (DHS), management can impose new pay rates and its own performance evaluation and discipline systems, as long as it first "consults" with representatives of the affected workers. When Congress created the DHS in 2002, it gave the administration the power, under the guise of national security considerations, to deny union representation and collective bargaining rights to 170,000 federal employees -- even though most of the workers were continuing in jobs that have enjoyed union protection for more than 50 years, including during wars in Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf.

As DHS was being created, more than 50,000 airline security screeners already were feeling the sting a lack of representation. When Congress made them federal employees in December 2001, President Bush blocked proposals that would have given them collective bargaining rights. As a result, they are experiencing unscheduled shift changes, forced overtime, delayed paychecks, and are often forced to search for explosives without protective equipment.

The Railway Labor Act

Joining many conservative critics, the Postal Service's Board of Governors also has called for an end to binding arbitration. Their endorsement of the Postal Service's Transformation Plan goes a step further by calling for contract disputes to be subject to the Railway Labor Act, or a modified version of it.

Under this law, politically appointed mediation and emergency boards intervene when contract negotiations fail. If either the union or management rejects the board's recommendations, there is a 60-day cooling off period before the union can strike.

This law, however, allows the president and Congress to order employees back to work and permanently enforce the board's resolution. For postal workers, strikes would probably be prohibited, because moving the mail is so crucial to our nation's economy.

Other proposals, such as one from Murray Comarow, would have arbitration replaced by a powerless mediation panel. Again, the union would be denied a right to strike; the president could impose contract settlements using "any device he may choose," Comarow notes.

"Giving the president or Congress the authority to impose contract conditions would allow postal management to walk away from the bargaining table and leave postal workers without a contract and without wage and benefit increases for several years," said Burrus.

The Bottom Line

While the commission and Congress could use any of the above or several other approaches to undermine postal workers' collective bargaining rights, it's likely that the bug mailers will try to increase their influence at the bargaining table in order to keep wages down and to maintain the below-cost postage discounts it now enjoys.

"Congressional attempts to modify the labor provisions of the Postal Reorganization Act can only lead to the demise of collective bargaining," Burrus said.

"The commission and Congress could use a 'stealth approach,' seeking legislation that would give an agency such as OPM or the Labor Department the power to revise the collective bargaining process," the APWU President warned. "This would enable politically appointed bureaucrats to impose the wages, working conditions and benefits that we now bargain for.

We will fight any such proposals with every fiber of our being," he said.

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