Postal Workers Deserve a Great Contract!

Below is an excerpt from my address at the opening of national negotiations. 

The [APWU] welcomes this opportunity to represent approximately 200,000 postal workers in these important negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between our union and the UnitedStates Postal Service.

For generations, postal workers were denied our right to negotiate over wages, benefits, and conditions of employment. That changed 54 years ago when postal workers
won true collective bargaining rights resulting from the Great Postal Strike of 1970.

Now representatives of our union sit across the bargaining table from management as equals – not because we have important titles – but because we have a union sustained and supported by our members. In that sense, all our members are present at the bargaining table today.

We are negotiating against a backdrop of both high inflation, with its profound negative impact on workers and our families, along with rising worker militancy throughout the country. [Across industries], workers have been rising up demanding more of their fair share from employers, all while galloping income inequality enriches the billionaire class.

As postal workers pour our lifeblood into the institution and its mission, workers deserve good annual pay increases, stronger safety rights, an end to the unfair and divisive two-tier career pay scales, limits on subcontracting, a career workforce, and better work hour guarantees and rights for Part Time Flexibles. We advocate that all bargaining unit work in retail be returned to the Clerk Craft and that all the work bargained for in “Jobs Memos” of 2010 finally be returned to the workers as promised. In the light of the impact of profound and rapid technological changes on our jobs, it is high time for a shorter workweek with no loss of pay.

A toxic work environment permeates too many facilities – a long-standing problem in the culture of postal management that cries out for solutions. The union strives to protect the hard-won gains and job security provisions secured over generations, and for dignity and respect on the job.

Declining service jeopardizes our bond with the people of the country, drives away needed revenue, and opens the gates for those who want to privatize the Postal Service.

[We] are passionate about the crucial mission of the public Postal Service “to provide postal services to bind the nation together,” to “provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas,” and to “render postal services to all communities”.

This mission remains in jeopardy, by those on Wall Street who would like to get their hands on the Postal Service’s $78 billion plus in annual revenue, and by ideologues
who oppose the very concept of the public good.

We are keenly aware that the Postal Service is still facing serious challenges, including the impact of technology and the internet on the communication habits of the people of the country, and the profound and permanent changes to the mail mix - letters are down while packages are up. Such changes create both hardships and hope.

Postal workers’ and the APWU’s vision are for a robust and vibrant Postal Service for generations to come.

We believe that the Postal Service should [provide] good, living-wage union jobs for workers from all walks of life, with equal pay for equal work for women and minorities, solid job opportunities for veterans, and be an incubator of great public service to every community, including new and expanded services for the people of the country.

The key to the Postal Service’s successful and bright future remains the hard work and dedication of hundreds of thousands of postal workers. These negotiations are an opportunity for management to reward our dedication and hard work. The APWU is ready to get to work!