e-Team Report, Sept. 13, 2013

Senate Committee to Address Postal Reform

On Thursday, Sept. 19, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will hold the first of two upcoming hearings on postal reform. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the committee’s Democratic chair and ranking Republican member, introduced a postal bill (S. 1486) just before Congress adjourned for its August recess.  Now that Congress is back in session, much work remains to be done on postal reform and on S. 1486 in particular. 

APWU strongly opposes S. 1486 as it is currently written. The bill would further degrade the service postal customers and businesses rely on and it would severely punish postal workers. 

To view information about the hearing, please click here.

Federal Unions Protest Proposal to Pull Postal Workers from Federal Employee Health Benefit Program

In a joint letter to the members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and the National Treasury Employees Union protested provisions of S. 1486 that would undermine the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) and harm workers compensation programs, impacting federal employees, retirees and their families. 

AFL-CIO Says Postal Service Needs ‘Innovation and Growth, Not Downsizing and Decline’

In a resolution adopted by the AFL-CIO at its 2013 convention this week, affiliated unions were called upon to mobilize against the “force of austerity and anti-unionism in the debate over postal reform.”  The postal unions jointly submitted the resolution, which pointed out that 80% of USPS losses are due to the massive and unfair requirement to pre-fund future retiree healthcare benefits. 

Last year postal employees handled and delivered 160 billion pieced of mail and the Service generated $65 billion in revenues… all without a single taxpayer dollar.  The resolution points out that rather than repealing the pre-funding mandate, postal reform “legislation now before Congress retains these burdens and calls for radical cuts in service and jobs to help pay for them.” The resolution also points out that “rather than investing in new products and upgrading it capabilities to handle growing parcel volume, the USPS has been drained of resources by this funding requirement and its management has adopted a doomed ‘shrink to survive’ strategy.” 

For more on the AFL-CIO’s adoption of Resolution 40 on the Postal Service, please click here.

Postal Work Ranked as Most Dangerous Among Federal Civilian Jobs

According to a preliminary report released by the Bureau of Labor statistics, postal work topped the list of most dangerous jobs in the federal civilian workforce.  Last year, 54 federal employees were killed on the job; 18 were postal employees. Despite the clear risk of death and injury postal workers face in carrying out a public service, lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that takes direct aim at injured postal workers’ compensation.  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced H.R. 2748 and Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced S. 1486.

The APWU has voiced strong opposition to both bills because they would slash compensation for injured postal workers.

For more on postal work topping the list of most dangerous federal civil jobs, please click here.

Victory for Indiana’s Working Families Puts ‘Right to Work’ Battle Back on Front Burner 

Lake Superior Court Judge John Sedia recently determined that Indiana’s “Right to Work” law, which requires unions to represent workers who do not pay dues or fees for services, is unconstitutional. He ruled that the law violates a provision in the state constitution that bars the delivery of services "without just compensation."  

For more on what lies ahead, please click here.