e-Team Report, June 14, 2013

Rep. Issa Releases a “Deeply Disturbing” Draft Postal Reform Bill

On June 13, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released a draft postal reform bill that stands to hurt postal employees and set USPS on a course to for-profit privatization.  APWU President Cliff Guffey called the draft bill “deeply disturbing” as it contains several troubling provisions that would:

• Prohibit the USPS and postal unions from negotiating protection against layoffs
• Require unions to renegotiate current contracts that include protection against layoffs
• Immediately increase postal workers’ health insurance costs
• Impose a two- to three-day delivery standard for first-class mail
• Close post offices, stations and branches
• Consolidate additional mail processing facilities
• Privatize postal retail services (It would prohibit customers from appealing a decision to close a post office, station or branch if a contract postal unit is opened within two miles.)
• Establish “competition advocates” to promote contracting out

For more on Rep. Issa’s draft postal reform bill, please click here.

Rep. DeLauro Calls on House Members to Preserve Overnight Delivery

This week Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) invited House members to become original co-sponsors of the Protect Overnight Delivery Act, a bill that will be introduced later this month.  In her letter, DeLauro stated the legislation would protect mail processing plans from closure by preventing the Postal Service from moving to two- to three-day delivery standards. 

Preserving delivery standards ensures Americans can continue to rely on timely mail delivery, stops destruction of the Postal Service network and saves jobs.  “The elimination of overnight delivery standards and consolidating processing facilities will have a disastrous impact on local and national unemployment,” wrote DeLauro. 

For more on the forthcoming Protect Overnight Delivery Act, please click here.

Rep. DeFazio Speaks in Support of Postal Service Protection Act

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek this week, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) spoke in support of the Postal Service Protection Act, which he and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) authored.  His interview covers a number of topics, including provisions in the Postal Service Protection Act to fix the disastrous pre-fund mandate, establish new revenue streams for the Postal Service, and reinstate delivery standards. 

“If you degrade first-class mail .… by closing these regional sorting centers,” said DeFazio, “you have the potential of letters taking five days for first class.” As DeFazio puts it, degraded delivery standards could “destroy the Postal Service.”

To read the full interview, please click here.

Unintended Consequences of Changing Postal Healthcare Options

During Senate hearings on the Postal Service financial crisis in February, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe again stressed his desire to reduce costs by pulling 1.1 million U.S. Postal Service employees and retirees out of the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.  Such a move could only occur with congressional approval.

Despite employee skepticism and doubts expressed by the Director of Office of Personnel Management, the Postal Service continues to push for this change, touting it as an “economically responsible” part of postal reform, and insisting that employees and retirees would save nearly $700 million dollars annually in premiums. 

Meanwhile, OPM raised serious concern about “unintended consequences” for other federal employees if the USPS is allowed to remove postal employees and retirees from the FEHBP.  An independent consultant and author of Consumers’ Checkbook Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees told Congress that the move would destroy the FEHBP, “disrupt the health insurance of 8 million Americans, and breach statutory entitlement promises made to millions of federal retirees.”

Stay tuned…in July the Government Accountability Office is due to issue a report on the effects of the USPS withdrawing from the FEHBP. To learn more, please click here.

Trumka: Congress Must End Logjam on NLRB Appointees

In a Delaware County Daily Times letter to the editor, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka this week called on Congress to approve President Obama’s appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  In the letter, Trumka states that, “In order to rebuild our economy and level the playing field for all working people – union and non-union – the law protecting workers’ rights must be enforced.  That’s the role of the NLRB – and it needs to work.”

Unfortunately, the NLRB is under attack by extremists in Congress.  Some anti-union senators are refusing to confirm President Obama’s nominees to the panel, which will soon deprive it of a quorum, and are pushing legislation to weaken the board.  To enable the board to continue protecting workers’ rights, senators in Washington must put their partisanship aside and confirm President Obama’s crucial nominees to the NLRB.

To read President Trumka’s letter to the editor in full, please click here