Our Struggle.... by William Burrus
President, American Postal Workers Union
from: The American Postal Worker magazine

The President's Commission On The U.S. Postal Service
has issued its final report and, as expected, its recommendations
would have a devastating effect on postal workers. The report confirms
our prediction that the commission was more concerned about postage
rates for large mailers than service to the American public.
Collectively, the recommended changes represented the "wish list" of
the large mailers, and the commission complacently fulfilled their
wildest dreams.

Our battle now moves to Congress, where legislation will be introduced
to enact into law a model to govern the Postal Service into the
future. The American Postal Workers union must renew its struggle to
preserve postal services for the American public and to protect the
rights of postal employees to have a voice in their conditions of
employment.

Few Remember

There are few current postal employees who remember the dark days
prior to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1971; few remember when
postal workers qualified for welfare because wages were so depressed.
Forgotten is the requirement to work 21 years before making the final
progression from entry step to top step. We do not collectively
remember when the Postal Service did not contribute to health
benefits, and how when the program was first initiated it mandated a
waiting time for coverage, including nine months prior enrollment for
payment of childbirth benefits. The advances over the past 32 years
have been so gradual that most employees who began their careers in
the intervening years have little understanding of the conditions that
existed during the darkest days - before collective bargaining.

Because the unions have been successful in gradually improving wages
and conditions of employment over three decades, the perception of
permanency has fed the widespread belief that these rights and
benefits are guaranteed.

The report of the presidential commission and proposed congressional
action promise to turn back the clock, wiping out all of the advances
made since 1971. Your wages would be reduced substantially; your
retirement and health benefits balanced against your salary, including
COLA; your
no-layoff protection would disappear (along with your job); your right
to adequate compensation after injury on the job would be drastically
reduced; and your opportunity for career enhancement through the
application of seniority to other postal jobs, i.e. retail,
maintenance; transportation and other skilled positions, would he
eliminated, along with the opportunities for transfer to other
offices. Hundreds of plants and thousands of post offices could be
closed, taking with them tens of thousands of job opportunities.

These proposed changes, hearing the stamp of a presidential
commission, would adversely impact all postal employees, without
exception. The security that you have enjoyed over the Length of your
career would vanish, and you could easily become a transient worker in
the new economy - the economy of Wal-Mart and McDonald's.

Recommendations Hurt All

In its zeal to placate the large mailers, the commission attacked
every postal entity.

It proposed replacing the Postal Rate Commission with a Postal
Regulatory Board that would he appointed by the president. This new
process would mean that all of the current members would be replaced.

The Postal Board of Governors would he replaced with a Board of
Directors whose members would he expected to have a great deal of
business expertise. In a direct affront to several members of the
current board, a mandatory retirement age is recommended that would
disqualify them.

The postmaster general and his executive staff would be stripped of
virtually all authority - except the responsibility of signing checks.

In the middle management ranks, postmasters and supervisors have been
targeted by a plan to close post offices and mail processing plants
that inevitably would reduce their ranks,
But the commission reserved its most regressive changes for craft
postal workers, recommending the destruction of the collective
bargaining process and the separation of postal employees from federal
health, retirement, and worker-compensation benefit programs.

The Mixed Agenda

While the commission has issued a report rife with negative
recommendations, the die has not been finally cast. Key members of
Congress have expressed their individual disagreements with entire
sections of the report, including several representatives who have
voiced specific opposition to the proposals that would strip workers
of their bargaining rights. Others have spoken out against the closing
of small offices and plants, and many have questioned the wisdom of
granting unprecedented authority to a Postal Regulatory Board.

These individual expressions are welcome, but they do not represent
opposition by a majority of the 435 members of the House of
Representatives or the 100 members of the Senate. Therefore, it is the
task of the union - at the national, state and local level-to fashion
common objectives and resistance to proposed changes.

Complicating matters further, each segment of the Postal Service
workforce has its own agenda. Consistent with the axiom, "it depends
on whose ox is being gored," forming a coalition to protect workers'
interests in Congress will not be easy.

The postmasters, supervisors, and the other major craft unions have
been outspoken in their support for postal "reform" for years, while
the APWU has opposed such legislation. Some openly advocated
contracting out the jobs worked by APWU members, so long as their own
areas of jurisdiction would be left untouched.

Efforts have been made to reach common ground with the large mailers,
overlooking the fact that the mailers are not allies, but rather are
vermin that, given the opportunity, would suck the lifeblood out of
every right and benefit that has been achieved, 'Their fundamental
goal is to reduce postal wages and benefits in order to keep their
postage costs low.

If workers' salaries and benefits are reduced, every employee -
whether labor or management - would he affected. Under commission
recommendations, a reduction of wages for existing and future
employees would apply simi-larly to all crafts, as well as to
supervisors and postmasters. A Nazi concentration camp victim once
said:

"They first came for the communists, and I did not speak up - because
I was not a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not
speak up - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade
unionists, and I did not speak up - because I was not a trade
unionist. Then they came for me- and by that time no one was left to
speak up."

What You Must Do

Whether or not other postal organizations find common ground with APWU
objectives, it is your responsibility to join with efforts to protect
your job. All of the benefits emanating from the strike of 1970 are in
jeopardy.

There can be no "free ride." In this struggle, you are either a part
of the solution or you are part of the problem. You are being called
upon to join in local efforts to engage your elected representatives
and your community. If you are too busy to spend the time necessary to
effectively lobby, please give to the Committee On Political Action so
that others can represent your interest. Your future is at stake and
you must be a part of the solution.
(One good way to be part of the solution is to give to
COPA through PostalEASE. The method is simple; instruc tions are
provided on page 13.) The struggle continues.