A draft postal bill [PDF] released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on June 13 would punish postal workers, privatize major portions of the USPS, and deprive the American people of vital services, said APWU President Cliff Guffey.
“We will examine the draft more thoroughly in the coming days and participate in discussions with lawmakers and other stakeholders,” Guffey said, “but our initial review is deeply disturbing.
“The draft bill would turn the USPS into a private, for-profit operation. It would do virtually nothing to strengthen the Postal Service’s ability to serve the communications needs of our nation,” he said.
A section-by-section summary of the bill [PDF] reveals the draft bill would:
Punish Workers
- Prohibit the USPS and postal unions from negotiating protection against layoffs [p. 6]
- Require unions to renegotiate current contracts that include protection against layoffs; [p. 6]
- Immediately increase postal workers’ health insurance costs [p. 6]
- Allow employees’ fringe benefits to return to pre-1971 levels [p. 7]
- Restructure contract negotiations to impose one party’s final offer if bargaining fails to reach a settlement [p. 7]
- Reduce compensation for injured employees with dependents and force them to retire as soon as they become eligible [p. 7]
Deprive Customers of Vital Services
- Impose a two- to three-day delivery standard for first-class mail [pp. 5-6]
- Close post offices, stations and branches [p. 2]
- Consolidate additional mail processing facilities [p. 6]
- Reduce door delivery and eliminate Saturday letter delivery [p. 1]
Privatize Postal Services
- Privatize postal retail services. It would prohibit customers from appealing a decision to close a post office, station or branch if a contract postal unit is opened within two miles. [p. 2]
- Establish “competition advocates” to promote contracting out [p. 11]
- Establish a “temporary governance authority” whose broad powers would end only after the USPS has two consecutive years of profitability. [p. 3]
- Require large contractors to give preference to former career USPS employees who were laid off from the Postal Service for the first two years after enactment of the bill. [p. 12]
Harm Postal Finances
- Re-amortize the pre-funding requirement, but retain the obligation to pre-fund 100 percent of health benefit costs for future retirees [p. 10]
- Maintain limits on postage rate increases, restricting them to no more than the Consumer Price Index [p. 7]
- Fail to refund USPS overpayments into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) accounts [p. 10]
- Unreasonably restrict new services [p. 8-9]
Issa is a piece of shit.
God help us if ISSA every runs for the President of the United States. He doesnt care about any of the americans at all….just for the rich people. I hope he gets his.
All you have to do to fix the Post Office is Reward the good workers and punish the Bad….Simple just like in the real world we should be doing.
Quit destroying America Jobs for America people
Hey Issa first lets raise your health cost first since you dont do anything.
Okay, workers rights…we are going right back to where we started years ago. Any progress is void. When the big companies and organizations were making (raking and taking) the big bucks, citizens were given a small piece of the pie. Now that the rifling has come to an end, well, we have to give it back….what a freaking illusion this was. The government agencies are in the news all the time caught wasting TAXPAYERS money, yeah, ours. Our benefits, retirement, current wages and working conditions are all going away…but guess what…the guys at the time ARE NOT making any concessions..no sir…in order to keep THEIR money and live style, we have to give up ours..the only thing I know to do from here is move to another country…
privatize and I for one, will be sure to never use that service EVER.I trust our carriers now.
Buried in this draft is where usps can issue bonds to generate cash but has to pledge assets such as buildings, etc……Seems like a setup to me.
Which one of Issa’s buddies is going to get enriched in this deal?
Just hurry up and pass this legislation ….. It’s almost July, the beach is a callin!!! Weekends baby!!!!!! And the rest I could care less about!!!! How you doin????
It is not hard to believe that issa was a captain in the marine corps. He views the post office as a terror organization and even though the post office employees are made up of veterans like myself. This is the thanks we get from our government for serving fours years in the marine corps. You are a disgrace issa and you should be tried as a ruthless criminal. You don’t deserve a say on what happens with the post office as you only serve your own agenda and not the customers that depend on the universal service that we provide.
With all that Issa wants to do one would wonder exactly how much stock does he have in ups and fedex and other companies who stand to benefit? The American People are being fooled, the republicans and democrats have them focused on the illegals becoming legal, then they are focused on mass killings, gay and lesbian rights, etc. The USA is in a sad state when a piece of crap like Issa is in charge of anything.
And the only person that would really care about this passing, is a postal worker. The public could not care less about postal workers, and they would not be “burdened” at all, with any of this.