APWU and NALC condemn USPS proposals
The United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General is seeking congressional support for legislation to eliminate protection against layoff from collective bargaining agreements; remove postal workers from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), and separate USPS employees from federal retirement programs. These proposals would destroy the collective bargaining rights of postal workers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union and interfere with the unions’ contracts.
“The APWU will vehemently oppose any attempt to destroy the collective bargaining rights of postal employees or tamper with our recently-negotiated contract,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “Crushing postal workers and slashing service will not solve the Postal Service’s financial crisis.
City letter carriers across the country, represented by NALC, received a mandatory stand-up talk from supervisors as part of a concerted campaign by top postal management to convince Congress to slash postal employees’ benefits and rights. This comes just days before NALC formally opens collective bargaining negotiations.
NALC President, Fredric V. Rolando, issued a statement saying, “These new legislative proposals constitute a transparent attempt to gut our benefits and reduce our bargaining rights without negotiations.”
The USPS issued a press release to the media and distributed two “white papers” to congressional decision-makers. One paper, "Postal Service Health Benefits and Pension Programs," asks Congress to allow the USPS to set up its own health plan and pension plans outside the systems for all other federal employees. The other paper, "Workforce Optimization," takes the extraordinary step of asking Congress to void the lay-off protection provisions of the various postal labor contracts. Not surprisingly, the health and pension proposals would dramatically cut employee benefits below those earned by other federal employees.
For more information go to NALC web page at; http://www.nalc.org/
APWU web page at; http://apwu.org/index2.htm
Or NPMHU web page at; http://www.npmhu.org/