AFL-CIO convention passes pro-postal resolution
Sept. 11, 2013—Speaking on Sept. 11 to the delegates to the 2013 AFL-CIO convention, NALC President Fredric Rolando delivered a number of messages that took many of those gathered inside the Los Angeles Convention Center by surprise.
“Don’t believe what you read in the papers,” Rolando said. “The Postal Service is not losing $15 billion a year. In fact, it’s earning a profit delivering the mail, bringing in $330 million so far this fiscal year.”
Rolando spoke in support of a convention resolution calling for the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions to help the postal unions win postal reform that will help the Postal Service innovate and grow and to help us defeat legislation that would slash jobs and service. The president also warned the delegates about congressional proposals to eliminate Saturday mail and door delivery of the mail.
“Every day, our members are out delivering the mail in rain, snow and sleet,” Rolando said. “But if Congress has its way, your grandmother will be forced to go out in all kinds of weather to get the mail herself.”
Rolando drew a shocked response from many delegates when he explained that the Postal Service is required by law to pre-fund its future retiree health benefits decades in advance, something no other government agency or private enterprise is expected to do.
He explained to delegates just how outrageous this unaffordable mandate is, especially as the Postal Service—much as the rest of the country—struggles to recover from the worst recession in 80 years.
“Any reform bill that fails to fix the pre-funding burden will pave the way for a continued attack on the 500,000 postal employee members of the AFL-CIO and the vital services the provide for the country,” President Rolando said.
The convention resolution was drafted by NALC along with the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the American Postal Workers Union. It was introduced to the delegates by J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees and a member of the AFL-CIO’s resolutions committee.
Cox made an impassioned speech in support of a strong Postal Service and of the hundreds of thousands of AFL-CIO members who work for the Postal Service and received a standing ovation. NPMHU President John Hegarty and APWU delegate Omar Gonzalez also lent powerful support for the resolution, which was passed by acclamation.
Click here to read the resolution.
Hi! How are you ?!
Rolando has to go, he isn’t our future! The future of our union depends on people like us, we are ready for a coup de teta!
For reducing the wages of hard working American Postal Workers, Guffey is going to lose his job, and Rolando will be right behind him…
dear JOHN LONG ISLAND, I Love to listen to MSNBC,I would never pay any attention to the FIX news network! Ex president FORREST GUMP sure isn’t a friend of the working man! Now try working without our union! It would be like working at Slavemart. My quarrel is not with you, it is against his royal majesty King DONAHOE and his band of over paid jesters! Sure I’m disappointed in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY, that is why I belong to the LABOR PARTY.
W C TODD… All of congress supported the Iraq invasion too, they voted for it. Stop listening to MSNBC and open your eyes…5 years Bush has been gone and still gets all the blame…Obama could of changed it but he didn’t…Also at the time the bill was put into effect the USPS was making Billions of dollars. No one expected the mail to drop off like it did…Keep paying 23.44 a pay check for a union who cares about nothing but the money…5 day will happen and the union has no say in it…I put that money in my thrift 23.44 a week turns into 609 a year and 30 year career is 18,283.00. Now thats a good investment.
Kudos! to you “tiredlegs”
I SO agree.
And thanks, Mail Lady. This propaganda about the Postal Service is such political malarchy. If the public knew just a tinge of what really goes on in this place. I tell my family stories all the time and they cannot believe!
Sad thing is, I really love carrying mail. I don’t see the need for 6 day anymore…maybe not even 5…
This was a smart move politically, on Rolando’s part – getting the AFL-CIO behind some decent Postal law reform. As Benjamin Franklin said shortly after signing the Declaration of Independence (which was tantamont to high treason by the English govt) “We can hang together or we can hang separately”.
The American people have to make a fundamental choice as to what is the fundamental mandate of USPS. Is it strictly a profit business model where, if a small P.O. doesn’t pay its way then you shut it down or, is it a basic, universal service provided to all Americans, regardless of where you live, esp. in a rural area. For many rural folks, the local P.O. is there lifeline for goods,conducting business, receiving medicine. When first created, the only mandate USPS had was to break even over a 3 to 4 year rate cycle. So if profitability is the benchmark in providing service in a given area, then much of rural and small town America is going to be cut out. HQ initially intended to eliminate 3400 small P.O.s flat out. When rural Congress jumped on this plan, they backed off then came up with the POST plan, cutting small P.O.s to 6, 4 and even 2 hrs a day. This is nothing more than an end run – death by a thousand cuts. In about a year, they will point to the reduced revenue in these reduced P.O.s and use that as the basis for eliminating them altogether. The touted “Village Post Office” offered as a substitute is a scam because it is not a full service P.O. Can’t rate parcels; will just sell flat rate boxes. Doesn’t sell money orders and provide other essential services that a bona fide P.O. does. These are just sub-contractor units with deceptive title. The sad thing is that all these small P.O.s only represent 2% of the total USPS budget so why are they screwing with them? Senators and Congressmen from rural states s/b raising hell about this.
The biggest millstone around USPS’s neck is the stupid pre-funding mandate Congress impose on USPS in 2006 with PAEA. They need the same message I used to get from by boss when something went wrong: “You screwed it up, now unscrew it”.
As a self-employed family as well you cannot pay someone to take the long way to get a job done when it could be done in half the time differently. No small business in the world would stay afloat. How can we continue to do this very thing in the Postal Service and stay afloat? And most of the public gets out of their homes to go to walmart, etc. Why can they not walk to their mailbox?
I like you, FedUp! 🙂 Once upon a time….hahaha!
all the complexes in my area are all cluster boxes,so all the elderly people,still walk down to get their mail,the carrier delivers 750 homes,but park and loop routes only deliver 400-450,so in our office,if we went to curbside and cluster box routes,we could get rid of at least 3 routes,do this around the country and you would save a quite a bit of cash,and no lugging mail on a carriers back any more.
Rolando doesn’t want the public to believe the stories in the paper???
HOW ABOUT HIS FAIRY TALES???
The only reason the Postal Service must prefund health care because of the Postal deform legislation is to destroy the Postal Service. President FORREST GUMG, in 2006 knew what he was doing! Remember, he is the same leader that believed in the weapons of mass deception!