e-Team Report, April 13, 2012

APWU Continues Outreach

Congress is getting ready to come back into DC next week. When legislators return to town, postal reform legislation could be taken up any day. The APWU continues to air television ads aimed at informing the general public and members of Congress that the Postal Service doesn’t cost taxpayers one cent. This ad campaign is designed to support efforts to finally resolve the Postal Service’s financial crisis without lowering service standards, slashing pay, reducing benefits, and ending collective bargaining rights.

On April 17 (Tax Day), locals across the country will be conducting informational leafleting at as many post offices as possible, with an emphasis on those facilities that draw media coverage on Tax Day. The purpose of this event is to bring to the attention of postal customers and the public at-large, the drastic cuts that management is planning if Congress doesn’t act. To read more information about the nationwide Tax Day leafleting and to download your own copies of the APWU’s Tax Day leaflet, click here.

With members of Congress coming back into their DC offices from their Easter Recess, the APWU is urging members to make sure to call their Senators and let them know that amendments to S. 1789 are direly needed. The APWU is endorsing amendments to:

• Provide adequate relief from the retiree healthcare prefunding requirement. 
• Set strict service standards. (The Postal Service is planning to degrade delivery standards in order to eliminate more than half of all mail processing facilities.) 
• Allow the USPS to recover overpayments the Postal Service made to its retiree pension funds. 
• Establish new ways to generate revenue, such as providing notary services, issuing licenses, contracting with state and local agencies to provide services, and allowing the USPS to offer services that mail systems in many other countries provide, such as digital services. 
• Prevent the closing of small post offices by giving the Postal Regulatory Commission binding authority to prevent closures based on the effect on the community and employees. 
•  Protect six-day delivery. 
• Eliminate the provision that would drastically reduce the compensation of workers who are injured on duty once they reach retirement age. 
• Repeal the provision that would require arbitrators in postal contract negotiations to consider the financial health of the USPS. (Arbitrators routinely do so. The requirement is an attempt to skew contract negotiations in favor of management.)

Please call both of your senators’ offices today. You can reach them via the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. After you call both of your senators, also make sure you take a minute to send them a quick message. To send them a message please, click here.

Senator-Postal Worker for a Day

With members of Congress home over their Easter Recess, the legislators found a variety of ways to spend their time. Over this recess, one Senator used this break to serve as a postal worker for a day. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), reported for his shift starting at 5 a.m. at the Missoula, MT mail processing center. To read more, click here .

Workers Ready to Fight Fire with Fire this Election

The 2010 Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court has laid the groundwork for the formation of many “super-PACs.” To stand against the seemingly limitless corporate super-PAC money being spent in federal elections, the AFL-CIO has launched a super-PAC of its own, the Workers’ Voice. Unlike other super-PACs, Workers’ Voice is not going to focus on media buys and television publicity. Instead, it will be focusing its resources on connecting with voters through e-mail, social media, canvassing, and phone banking. To read more in the Hill, please click here .

To find out more information about the Workers’ Voice and to get involved, click here .

Right to Work Stalls Again

This week in New Hampshire, the State Senate appears to have finally stopped the right-wing push for the passage of Right to Work (RTW) at the state house in Concord. With only a voice vote taken, the RTW bill in the State Senate was indefinitely tabled.

To read more, please click here .