e-Team Report, July 15, 2011

Union Busting Buried Within Issa’s H.R. 2309 Postal Reform Bill

Recently Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced a postal reform bill containing parts closely resembling a law passed in Michigan earlier this year, aimed at unilaterally modifying collective bargaining agreements.

Rep. Issa’s bill would create a Solvency Authority to oversee the USPS that will be empowered to single handedly “reject, modify, or terminate 1 or more terms and conditions of an existing collective bargaining agreement” after simply “meeting and conferring with the appropriate bargaining representative”. 

The Michigan law has already been used at the state level to assault collective bargaining rights. Michigan’s law gives what they label as an “emergency” manager, the right to unilaterally modify collective bargaining agreements currently in place. This resulted in the appointed “fiscal emergency manager” of the Detroit Public Schools to issue layoff notices to every single teacher in the public school system only a month after this law passed at the state level. The manager then moved to renegotiate the union’s contract. The new law only required the emergency manager to “meet and confer” with union officials about the contract, not bargain in good faith, which is the nucleus of collective bargaining.

Congressman Issa is attacking collective bargaining rights without even looking at what is really causing the financial problems of the Postal Service. Issa’s H.R. 2309 does not even address the congressional mandate requiring the postal service to annually pay $5.5 billion dollars a year for future retiree health care benefits. This is something that no other company in the private sector or government agency is required to do. Nor does it address the billions in over-payments made into both CSRS and FERS accounts by the Postal Service.

All of this is simply aimed at ending any real effective power for workers who want a union and decide to come together to collectively bargain.

To read the full story please click here.

Rep. Stephen Lynch’s (MA) H.R. 1351 will let the USPS use billions of dollars in CSRS and FERS overpayments to meet its financial obligations. Unlike other bills that address the pension overpayments, H.R. 1351 will not attack the rights of workers to collectively bargain.

The APWU is asking all of its members to call your U.S. representative today and urge them to cosponsor and support H.R. 1351. Also make sure you voice your opposition to Congressman Issa’s H.R. 2309. You can reach your member of congress by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard today at (202) 224-3121 or to find your member of congress click here. If your U.S. representative has already signed on as one of the current 170 cosponsors to H.R. 1351 please make sure you reach out to their office and thank them for their support. If you have not taken a minute to contact your members of Congress asking them to cosponsor H.R. 1351, please do so now.

AFL-CIO Urges Senators to Delete Section of Senate Bill 1010 in Order to Support Fair and Free Collective Bargaining for Postal Workers

This week the AFL-CIO sent a letter to all U.S. Senators asking them to oppose and delete section 401 of S. 1010, the Postal Operations Sustainment and Transformation Act of 2011 (P.O.S.T. Act).

The “Post Act”, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) on May 17, would address the Postal Service’s pre-funding requirement by allowing the USPS to use overpayments to its pension accounts to meet the prefunding obligations. It would also allow the USPS to expand its service to customers by providing additional retail services and by shipping beer and wine. However, Carper’s bill also includes several negative aspects: The proposed legislation would give the Postal Service authority to close post offices solely for financial reasons, and would require arbitrators to consider the financial health of the USPS when contract negotiations end in arbitration. APWU supports the overpayment provisions but cannot support this bill as currently written.

For over 40 years, the Postal Service along with its unions have been able to come together to reach labor agreements that benefited the American public, its employees and the Postal Service itself. A majority of contracts have been reached without the need for binding arbitration. However, even when contracts required arbitration in every instance the results were reached without the interference of Congress. Including Section 401 would simply alter the current process that has worked well for both labor and management for decades.

A simple examination of the 40 years of collectively bargained agreements shows that section 401 is simply not necessary. Such an examination would show that in every instance financial data has been presented to the arbitrator by one or both parties when bargaining went to interest arbitration. 

If section 401 is left in this legislation and passed it would tilt the level in favor of management by requiring arbitrators to consider the financial condition of the postal service. The AFL-CIO believes that collective bargaining should not be tampered with by Congress and instead should be left in the hands of labor and management to freely and in good faith collectively bargain. If section 401 is left in this legislation it will simply encourage the USPS to block any chance of coming to an agreement before arbitration. This will only result in what is often an expensive, lengthy and contentious process.

Democratic Governors Association to Kick Off Voter Protection Drive

The Democratic Governors Association is set to launch a voter protection drive in response to multiple states passing legislation to make voting harder. As of today six states have already passed new voter ID laws that will take effect starting this election season. Multiple others states already have legislation in the works to follow suit. Other states are trying to restrict the length, flexibility and options voters currently have in their states to vote. They are currently shortening early voting periods and making it harder to vote via absentee ballot. These types of legislation have been popping up in more and more battle ground states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Texas.

To read more please click here. To sign up for the DGA’s voter protection project please click here.

Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Accusing Louisiana of Violating the National Voter Registration Act

This week the Justice Department filed a lawsuit accusing the state of Louisiana of not meeting the standard level of services to offer voter registration for residents who are dependent on government services. The lawsuit explains that they believe the state is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which was enacted in 1993. This Act was aimed to expand voter registration for both disabled along with low income Americans. Out of the 3.1 million residents that filed for Medicaid, renewals and change of address forms a meager 14,275 voter applications were submitted. 

To read more about this story please click here. To learn more about voting rights please click here.