e-Team Report, Nov. 18, 2013

New Legislative & Political Director Marcotte Set on Mobilizing APWU Members for Legislative Victory

Last week John L. Marcotte, formerly the Michigan Postal Workers Union president, took the reins at APWU’s Legislative & Political Department.  “The power to save our jobs and the people’s Postal Service is in our active and retired APWU brothers and sisters,” said Marcotte.  To keep postal workers in the middle class, protect the hard-won benefits and regain those lost, Marcotte and his team are mobilizing members to make sure the voices of postal workers and allies are heard in every city and town, not just in Washington, D.C.  “Maintaining a viable Postal Service and protecting our jobs only through lobbying efforts and political donations, while important, are not the whole solution,” said Marcotte.  “We must be willing to educate our friends and neighbors, attend the rallies, and organize for sweeping change.”  

The APWU Political & Legislative Department will be reaching out to local, state and retiree organizations to provide training and coordinate an activist network that will take the message of postal workers, the middle-class, postal customers and workers to the streets and to Capitol Hill.

Please check the APWU Legislative & Political homepage for updates, by clicking here.

Dimondstein Vows to Broaden Support For Protecting Postal Service, Postal Jobs

At this year’s All-Crafts Conference, APWU President Mark Dimondstein spoke before APWU brothers and sisters calling for a ‘grand alliance’ to preserve a public Postal Service and protect postal jobs.  Dimondstein called for a movement to save the Postal Service by creating broad support with “our allies and their organizations including seniors, retirees, civil rights organizations, veterans groups, the labor movement, community and faith-based organizations, the Occupy movement, and even some business groups in defense of America’s right to vibrant public postal services.”  

Public sector workers and services have been targeted for far too long.  “Anything that stands for the public good – public libraries, public education, public utilities, public transportation and public postal service – is under severe attack, as are public workers and our unions,” said Dimondstein.  However, Dimondstein pointed out, there are encouraging signs that American workers are fighting back as stirrings from Wal-Mart and fast-food workers have demonstrated.  Newly elected national officers began their three-year terms on Nov. 12.

Facing Opposition to Harmful Postal Bill, Committee Cancels Another Mark-up

For the second time in as many weeks, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs cancelled their plans to advance the fundamentally flawed postal bill, S. 1486.

In the face of serious concerns about the bill raised by several Democrats on the committee, as well as by postal unions and postal customers, Committee Chair Tom Carper (D-DE) and Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK) first cancelled a mark-up of the bill scheduled November 6th.  Now, the committee leaders have again scrapped their latest attempt to mark-up the bill, which had been scheduled for Nov. 20th.

A committee markup is the key formal step a committee ultimately takes before a bill advances to the floor. Markup is a committee meeting where the original bill is "marked up" by amendments (changes to the original text). Committee members debate and vote on the amendments before any changes are made. Mark-Ups usually end with a vote to report the bill out of committee to the full House or Senate floor for further consideration. Not proceeding with markup is a good sign that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs believes there is yet work to be done and currently not enough support to pass the bill out of committee.

Voicing their opposition to some of S. 1486’s biggest flaws, Democrats like Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) say the bill would slow down delivery standards and eat into USPS’s remaining competitive advantages.  “There’s probably a dozen things that need to be fixed with that bill,” Tester, a member of the Homeland Security panel, told The Hill.

To read more about the cancelled Nov. 6th mark-up of this harmful postal bill, please click here.

Please be sure to take advantage of this delay in the Senate and tell your lawmakers to oppose damaging postal reform bills making their way through the Congress! To send a letter to your members of Congress, please click here.

The Bigger the Team, The Stronger We Are

Attention Current E-Team Subscribers

Years ago the APWU Legislative & Political Department established an e-mail alert system to inform union members about important developments. With so much at risk today, it is more important than ever to be able to reach out quickly to our members, retirees and allies. In order to better serve you, we are asking for additional information from all current E-Team subscribers. The new information we are requesting will enable us to send targeted alerts when needed and will allow us to request feedback based on your congressional district, your worksite, or even your specific postal job. 

Please take a moment to update your information here. 

New Subscribers

The importance of expanding our information and feedback network cannot be overstated. We encourage you to distribute E-team sign-up forms, share them with friends, family, and APWU members, collect them and mail to: American Postal Workers Union, Legislative & Political Department, 1300 L Street N.W., Washington D.C. 20005. To obtain new E-Team forms, please contact your Grassroots Coordinator.

E-Team Homework: Who is Hurt by Slowed Mail in your Community?

As part of APWU’s ongoing struggle against the devastating cuts to the mail processing network, we are looking to identify new potential allies who share our concerns.  To achieve that goal, we need your help!  We want to hear from you directly if you know of any postal customers in your area who are suffering through the mail slowdown created by closures and consolidations.

Are there any organizations or businesses in your community who depend on the timely delivery of mail and are experiencing delayed mail?  Sample categories include but are not limited to:  Veterans’ organizations, local newspapers, unions, seniors’ organizations, utility companies, local government, community organizations, and local businesses.

If you know of any, please provide as much specific information as possible, including the nature of the delay and its impact, the individual or organization’s name, location and contact information.