News

At the UNI Post & Logistics Global Conference, delegates voted unanimously on a resolution condemning plans to strip postal workers of their bargaining rights and calling on the US Congress to pass House bill H.R. 1351 which would allow the postal service to use surplus pension funds to cover the cost of retiree health payments that caused the USPS financial crisis.



The post conference attendees also signed a giant postcard addressed to Speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner calling on Congress to pass H.R. 1351.



UNI P&L affiliates the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) and their members are under attack as the USPS executives try to use the financial crisis to balance their books on the back of workers. House bill H.R. 1351 would stabilize the Postal Services finances and give the U.S. unions a fair playing field in the current round of collective bargaining negotiations.



The postal unions are fighting back. They will hold a mass day of action across the United States on September 27 to call on Congress to support H.R. 1351 and save a quality postal service and quality jobs.



The crisis facing the USPS was not caused by the workers. Congress created the crisis in 2006 when President Bush demanded legislation to require USPS – and only USPS – to fund future retiree health benefits in advance with annual payments of $5.5 billion per year. No other company or agency in America faces this burden – which requires USPS to pre-fund 75 years of future benefits in just 10 years. Applied just when the global financial crisis began, the pre-funding requirement plunged the Postal Service into a deep deficit -- causing 100% of the postal operator’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years.





Click on “Related Documents” to read the UNI P&L resolution.