The Union Should Be Involved in Politics

On behalf of the Northeast Region, we hope you and your family had a joyous holiday season and that the new year brings you more love, peace, joy, and happiness.

The 2024 General Election was contentious and touchy, and everyone had an opinion. Some guarded their thoughts on the election for fear of arguments and insults. I witnessed the damage it caused to relationships between family and friends. I saw the same within our union.

Family members don’t think alike or believe the same things. This is also true in our union. We all have the right to believe and think what we want; that’s the beauty of our rights in this country, but we must remember that this principle goes both ways.

Author Roy T. Bennett said, “We are all different. Don’t judge, understand instead.”

I hear union members say, “The union should stay out of politics, do their job, and represent us.” Politics touches everything in this world. Our union not getting involved in politics would be a failure to represent its members.

I believe postal unions have a constitutional right and responsibility to be involved in politics on every level of government. The U.S. Constitution mandated the creation of the Postal Service.

For example, Congress passed the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act, which President Nixon signed into law. The first paragraph of the act reads:

The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people.

This law gave postal unions the right to collective bargaining, among other rights. These rights were a demand by the postal unions to Congress. We enjoy the benefits of this law today.

In 2011, Postmaster General (PMG) Patrick Donahoe tried to renege on the collective bargaining agreement he had just signed by requesting that Congress introduce legislation to let him lay off 120,000 employees and remove employees from federal benefits programs. His request failed because members of Congress supported our union and postal employees.

When PMG Donahoe tried to outsource postal work to the Staples office retail company, local, state, and national unions lobbied members of Congress to support the Stop Staples campaign, and they did. They wrote letters to PMG Donahoe to eliminate the program, conducted investigations, and rallied with their constituents. The collective work of everyone involved forced the program to end. Congress was important in this fight.

Across the country, APWU members contacted their elected representatives to help fight the Delivering for America plan. Many members of Congress got involved and demanded answers and transparency. In some cases, the implementation was either stopped or delayed due to the push from the unions and Congress.

These are just some reasons why we should be involved in politics. The Constitution grants Congress power over the Postal Service; they can create laws that can harm or help us. We must build relationships with the elected officials who support us and work to gain the support of those who don’t, regardless of party affiliation. We need their voice in our struggle. It’s that simple. The union is not just a grievance machine. It can’t be in order to exist and represent its membership.

We can never let our differences of opinion on political issues prevent us from working together to secure and save the things we have in common, which are protecting our jobs, benefits, and the Postal Service.

My fellow Regional Coordinators (Omar Gonzalez, AJ Jones, Yared Wonde, and Amy Puhalski) and I thank everyone in the APWU for building those political relationships for the greater good. We’re going to really need it now. ■