The 114th Congress was sworn in on Tuesday, and in the House of Representatives, Reps. Sam Graves (R-MO) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) wasted no time in renewing their commitment to preserving six-day mail delivery by quickly introducing H.Res. 12.
One of the first pieces of legislation introduced in this session of Congress, H.Res. 12 is identical to previous sessions’ resolutions that called on Congress and the Postal Service to take all appropriate steps to continue six-day mail delivery.
The current resolution already has 45 co-sponsors (see below). The last version, introduced early in the 113th Congress (2013-2014), wound up with 228 co-sponsors from both political parties.
“We are encouraged to see our friends in Congress once again take up the fight to maintain Saturday mail delivery service,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “We hope that the rest of the members of the House and Senate see any attempts to eliminate this or any other postal service for what they truly are: short-sighted excuses for failing to address an onerous pre-funding mandate that perpetuates a cut-cut-cut mentality.
“Maintaining six-day mail delivery service meets the demands of American households and businesses,” Rolando said. “We applaud Congressmen Graves and Connolly for leading the effort to preserve this service.”
A fact sheet to support this resolution will be posted soon.
First co-sponsors of H.Res. 12:
| Sanford Bishop (D-GA) | Gene Green (D-TX) | Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) |
| Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) | Morgan Griffith (R-VA) | Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) |
| G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) | Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) | Chellie Pingree (D-ME) |
| Matthew Cartwright (D-PA) | Bill Keating (D-MA) | Raul Ruiz (D-CA) |
| Judy Chu (D-CA) | Peter King (R-NY) | Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) |
| David Cicilline (D-RI) | Richard Hanna (R-NY) | Aaron Schock (R-IL) |
| Emanuel Clever (D-MO) | Alcee Hastings (D-FL) | Kurt Schrader (D-OR) |
| Paul Cook (R-CA) | Brian Higgins (D-NY) | David Scott (D-GA) |
| Jim Costa (D-CA) | Rubin Hinojosa (D-TX) | Terri Sewell (D-AL) |
| Susan Davis (D-CA) | Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) | Albio Sires (D-NJ) |
| Ted Deutch (D-FL) | Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) | Louise Slaughter (D-NY) |
| Eliot Engel (D-NY) | Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) | Glenn Thompson (R-PA) |
| Chaka Fattah (D-PA) | Leonard Lance (R-NJ) | Paul Tonko (D-NY) |
| Bill Foster (D-IL) | Sandy Levin (D-MI) | Niki Tsongas (D-MA) |
| Chris Gibson (D-NY) | Gwen Moore (D-WI) | Peter Welch (D-VT) |
Resolution is a bunch of BS. Going to cost the post office overtime if they go to a 5 day work week is the total opposite reason for the switch to a 5 day work week. There will be no back up of mail because of the drastic decrease in mail volume. Postal routes are being eliminated everyday through out the country, because of the dramatic decrease in mail volume. Carrier routes are being eliminated at an astounding rate. Carrier jobs being eliminated because of volume. Help keep carrier jobs by increasing volume by eliminating 1 delivery day. The post office knows how to sustain itself, allow it to make the necessary changes. Do allow the unions influece. How is it the unions know more about postal bussiness then the post office itself. Congress please allow the post office to make the appropriate changes they need to sustain as the postal service.
the unions are only looking out for themselves not the carriers they represent. The number of us carriers that support the 5 day work week greatly out number those opposed. So who are you speaking for? We the workforce support a 5 day work week.
No normal family man welcomes 6 day delivery. This was our chance to normal living with our families and the unions once again selfishly care only about number of members. 90% of my fellow carriers support 5 day delivery, the 10% that don’t support it are mere days from retirement. The fight for 6 day delivery only angers most carriers. You union people are as bad as Management. You care more about the workforce that hadn’t even been hired yet, just as the pre funding is funding for workers retirement whom haven’t even been born.
Ok, so most of you are against 6 day deliver. Lets see how many people lose their jobs because of possible 5 days delivery. Let’s fix the USPS where we need to. May companies do target Saturday’s for delivery of their mailings since most people are home on Saturdays. Remove the pre-funding of retireee benefits. Stop closing the processing plants. Oh, and one other thing, fix the Computerized Forwarding System (CFS). The USPS regionalized all the CFS processing center and now it takes up to a week to get forwarded mail. Move it back into the individual processing plants, there would be a shorter turn around period. Let’s upgrade the delivery standards. We’ll get more business this coming year since UPS is raising their rates by 5%. Oh and yes, I am a dedicated letter carrier.
The Unions want 6 day mail delivery so they can keep their roles and dues up. When you look at 5 day mail delivery it simply benefits the Postal Service and those it employs. It keeps overtime costs low, it gives a greater number of regular employee’s conjunctive days off which in turns improves morle.
Customers don’t care if they get a circular in their mail box on Saturday, they do care about their packages and so long as the Postal Service continues in excellance in this area I doubt the vast majority of parons will even know that we stopped delivering on Saturday.
Union bosses, Congressman and higher level managers are all at the Golf course on Saturday so itis real easy for them to throw the working class under the bus without even polling the true voice of the employee!
those congress men and women couldn’t care less if they or anyone else got their mail on Saturday…… apparently the unions threw some money their way. we don’t need to deliver letters and flats on Saturday, and the PO could save a lot of $ if we didn’t, but unfortunenately the unions will continue to cost the PO billions as long as it doesn’t interfere with the number of paying members they have. if Saturday is so important then why are the clerk windows only open for a couple of hours in the morning?
Why ? Why ? because a study was done at that / Those Post Offices and some Butt Head said We do not need that PO open all day. They also said they did not need a Manager but that`s coming around and biting them in the Butt..
Looks like a little bipartisan involvement here, which is good. I wonder if HR 12 contains any language barring the USPS from shutting down any more plants. Just guaranteeing six day delivery will be enough to piss management off to no end. Turn about is fair play.
I have been quite pessimistic about the future of the service, having invested 30 years of real labor into it, not 30 years of embezzlement, ass kissing and ignoring the customer. Donahoe’s recent comments about blaming unions for wanting to have workers enjoy career positions with retirement plans and benefits, and claiming workers don’t plan on careers in one job and don’t want benefits is not only a bald faced lie, but reveals just how mean and selfish he ultimately is. Four million in retirement pension for him, he’s a happy camper, fuck everybody else. What a piece of shit.
However, regardless of how arrogant and above the law high level management thinks it is, they are not as God like as they’d like to think. We have one thing on our side they can’t touch, and that’s a mandate in the U.S. Constitution that makes mail service compulsory to all citizens. It is therefore under the umbrella of the feds, not subject to sale to some private business like Wal-Mart, no matter how bad Donahoe or Issa would like to see that happen.
No state in its right mind would even consider repealing the constitutional requirement, and all 50 states would have to ratify the repeal, which will not happen, especially in rural areas where folks are utterly dependent on the USPS for medicines and other necessities.
I hope cautiously that the USPS can only go so far and Congress will finally have had enough and step in. One hopes they would do the right thing, by keeping all plants open, retain six day delivery and wages and benefits for all employees, and maybe most importantly, form a truly independent agency to do nothing but oversee management and closely monitor everything they do, and have the power to remove those who would embezzle, lie to Congress like Donahoe or otherwise try to implement any program that would jeopardize service.
This would involve close union involvement too, but that’s okay. We’ve shown more concern and did more to try to save the damn USPS than we can count. Management will one day pay for its obstinance and ineptitude. Let’s hope it’s sooner than later.
What about the delivery standards and the prefunding elephant??…wait to these really sink in too!!!!! preserving six day is just political lipstick on a pig.
this is bull. lets address 6 day delivery and not the closing of 82 mail processing facilities.