Postal Unions Form Alliance – Declaration Promises Joint Efforts
Declaring that “the U.S. Postal Service is under unprecedented attack,” the presidents of the four postal unions have formed a historic alliance to fight back.
“A congressionally-manufactured financial crisis drains the USPS of vital resources,” the union presidents write in a proclamation [PDF] signed over the last several days. “Six-day delivery is under constant threat of elimination. The 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.
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“Corporate privatizers seek to gain control over larger segments of postal operations – and to get their hands on the Postal Service’s $65 billion of annual revenue. The Postmaster General’s policies of subcontracting and degrading service are fueling the privatization drive,” proclamation declares.
“The four postal unions stand together to end the attack,” it says. “We stand with the people of our country in defense of their right to a universal postal service operated in the public interest.” The Postal Union Alliance commits the unions to work together to protect service and oppose the subcontracting of work and privatization of services.
It also vows to expand service to include basic banking, notary, check-cashing and other services; form a common front in the fight for genuine postal reform legislation, and “end the corporate welfare of excessive pre-sort discounts.”
The unions also pledge to organize join actions and encourage joint work at the local level; support maximum cooperation in the next round of contract negotiations, and build an alliance with the American people in defense of the public postal service.
APWU Mark Dimondstein called the formation of the alliance “groundbreaking.” The proclamation is signed by Dimondstein, President Fredric Rolando, of the National Association of Letter Carriers; President John Hegarty, of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, and President Jeanette Dwyer of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association.
“We have agreed to work together to defend a beloved national treasure,” Dimondstein said. “Our efforts will benefit all postal employees and the people of this country who expect and deserve a vibrant, public Postal Service for generations to come.”
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On January 23, David Westgard, former treasurer of American Postal Workers Union Local 65, was sentenced in the Dakota County, Minnesota District Court to 20 days in prison followed by two years of supervised release for embezzling funds from the Mendota Heights, Minn. union. He also was ordered to pay $4,241 in restitution on top of the $22,719 he already had paid. Westgard had pleaded guilty last November after being charged a year earlier.
I say…decertify APWU…certify teamsters and let Diamondstein and the APWU represent the private contractor drivers that Diamondstein unionized at the expense of the MVS craft!
Lets just due away with the unions.
I’ve been a carrier for 19 years . any carrier who believes we need 6 day delivery is in denial, and paranoid.
get up to speed….the latest report from the PMG…the consolidations are on hold..we will doing 7 day delivery for some types of mail…they will be hiring new employees, they are trying to cut back on the overtime because so many employees retired and they can’t process the mail in time to adhere to the 24hour clock they used to use as a standard. they have new equipment for processing mail coming out. for some reason the PMG has done a reversal from the “we are in trouble” videos to a more positive outlook. i think all the unions have just laid over and died on a lot of issues,concentrate on the important ones like keeping the Post Office a customer service driven company other than one driven by profit(which right now is all being taken by the government anyway)
Saturday mail delivery will be terminated!
Another meaningless/actionless/resultless photo op for the lemmings.
Banking? Notary?…… Who is going to do the work? The 2 window clerks with an Angry line of people out the door, waiting to buy stamps? Lol!! 5 day delivery or bust!!!! Let’s make some cuts!!!
Why kick a dying horse. Have a great day everyone, I have better things to do with my time.
I am hoping that with new and hopefully better APWU leadership, the other unions will agree to stick together on vital issues in the future and not segregate themselves.
WELL ! ISSA about time ! ! Almost as bad as Congress not working together for the common good . CONGRATULATIONS ! No doubt Moe Biller smiling today !!!
Scott-You are wrong,it was the APWU under the horrible leadership of Cliff “Goofy” Guffey and their executives who pandered to management and negotiated the worst contract in organized labor history and sold it to the uninformed voting members.The other unions refused to accept the ridiculous contract proposals by management and let them declare an impasse so that it could go to arbitration where all the other unions got similar contracts awarded by the three different arbitrators.
blaugh blaugh blaugh…….. same crap- another day
ONE UNION
The unions are starting to realized what Benjamin Franklin said a long time ago, when the Founders with balls, signed their names on the Declaration of Independence – “We can hang together or we will hang separately”. What took these guys so long to get their act together, and put all their petty differences aside? It may be too late. The best they can do at this point is to get the story out to the public how their postal system is going to hell in a hand basket, and being killed by special interests and Congressional idiots. This s/b a major campaign – how they are killing an American institution and a public right, spelled out in the Constitution – universal postal service. Stuff like this can only happen when good people stand by silently, and do nothing.
With all the downsizing of the Postal Service I’m wondering how many Union leaders family and friends have been let go in order to save Union Funds ? My guess is none, nada, zilch……
The last union rep I knew went on to become a 204B as soon as he lost an election for a higher office.
Go one more step. One Union !
Not to be a negative Nelly, but the fact is that the NALC is the only union of the four that still has any balls left. The others went down with the ship with terrible labor agreements and non-existent representation on the floor, at least where I’m at.
It sounds good, it sounds tough, but talk is cheap. I’m afraid Congress will do whatever it damn well pleases. They ignore everybody else except their owners, the financial institutions, so to expect them to cower in fear over some organized labor tough talk is wishful thinking at best.
However, if the unions do it right with lots of public forums and encourage action not just from union members but the public at large it could be at least moderately successful. It’s an uphill battle all the way, especially with mid terms coming up.