April 3, 2014
By Neal Tepel
Washignton, DC — The nation's postal unions – the Letter Carriers, the Postal Workers, the Mail Handlers and the Rural Letter Carriers – have joined an historic joint cooperation pact.
And they'll start putting it into effect with a combined "National Day of Action" on April 24. The 'action plan' is aimed at preventing not only the layoffs of thousands of workers but also the reduction of postal services to communities across the country.
A joint statement by thee four unions stated that "A congressionally manufactured financial crisis drains the U.S. Postal Service of vital resources. Six-day delivery is under constant threat of elimination. Reduction of service standards and the elimination of half of the nation's mail processing centers has slowed service and wiped out tens of thousands of good jobs. Post offices in cities and small towns are being sold or closed or having their hours cut back. The four postal unions stand together to end the attack. We stand with the people of our country in defense of their right to a universal postal service operated in the public interest."
"Americans value and deserve postal services provided by highly trained, uniformed and accountable employees who work directly for the Postal Service, not for an office-supplies retail chain," said Letter Carriers (NALC) President Fredric Rolando. "Just as the members of the APWU stand with the NALC in our battle to preserve 6-day mail delivery service, so do Letter Carriers stand with our brothers and sisters in this fight against privatization."
The coalitions strategy will include the derailing of S1486 which will let the postmaster general kill Saturday service, order reopening of union contracts so management could slash benefits, and take postal workers out of a well-financed federal health benefits plan. The unions will also be opposing the postmaster general's replacement of unionized workers with non-union low-paid retail workers at USPS "branches" in Staples stores.
