Tag Archives: USPS

Imagine A Wold Without The USPS, This Infographic Shows What We Would Lose

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 14, 2013 - 3:59 pm | ,
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World WIthout Post Office

Can you imagine what the world would look like without the US Postal Service?  With the never ending attacks on the USPS, this could soon be a reality.  We cannot allow this to happen.  The USPS handles 438 million pieces of mail every day, moving over 40% of the worlds mail.

Below is a great infographic that highlights some of the things that would be lost if we loose the USPS.  The USPS is the second largest employer in the United States, and directly effects over 8 million jobs.  These workers deliver 160 billion pieces of mail every year.   And they do it all without taking any money from taxes. The USPS is completely self funded by the revenue generated from postage.

One of the best things highlighted by this infographic is the charity donations that the USPS help to raise.  Over $76 million dollars raised for breast cancer research, and nearly $2 million dollars for endangered animals.

We must stay united in our effort to preserve this Constitutionally protected service.  The problems facing the USPS are all due to the pre-funding requirement set forth by Congress.  The USPS is being forced to pre-fund their retirement system for 75 years in the next 10 years.  This is the only reason the USPS is ‘loosing money’.  If Congress removes this restriction we will continue to have a vibrant postal service for eternity.

Life without the United States Postal Service
Source: NumberSleuth

Who thinks we should feed hungry Americans?

  By Liz Iacobucci | May 10, 2013 - 6:25 am | , , , ,
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REMINDER: The 21st Annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive is today, Saturday, May 11th. Please leave non-perishable food items by your mailbox and your postal carrier will deliver them to the local food pantry or food bank.

So this is where we are, these days, in this great country of ours:

DSC_9969Almost 15% of Americans were “food insecure” last year. That means one in seven families went hungry sometimes, because they didn’t have enough money to buy food.

Last month, Congress carved out exemptions to the “across-the-board” federal budget cuts known as The Sequester. What did they exempt? Defense spending, of course – and also the FAA, because furloughing air traffic controllers caused (gasp!) travel delays. But Congress kept the cuts to food pantries, Meals on Wheels, and other supplemental nutrition programs.

This month, Congress is debating the Farm Bill. Guess what they’ve already agreed on? The Food Stamp program is going to get cut. It’s only a question of how much. Senate Democrats plan to cut the program by (only?) $400 million. House Republicans want to cut it by about $2 Billion.

Sooo… Congress thinks feeding hungry Americans is a budget problem?! Gosh. Wonder where else in the budget that money could come from. Golly, the Joint Committee on Taxation has some ideas.

  • Maybe corporate tax policies? Who knew that corporations pay reduced rates on their first $10 million of income? The Joint Committee estimates that one policy will cost the federal government $3.7 Billion in revenue next year. Maybe that could pay for Food Stamps?
  • Or how about the way Congress taxes investment income? Current tax law treats investment income as if it’s waaaaaaaaay better than the wage income earned by working people. That policy is going to cost the federal government $91.3 Billion next year. And that could probably pay for a lot of Food Stamps.
  • How about all those corporate stock options that CEOs receive as “performance incentives”? Special tax treatment of those options will cost the federal government $300 million next year – not quite as much as the Senate wants to cut from Food Stamps, but hey, that money would still feed a few families, if it wasn’t subsidizing CEOs.

Budgets are all about priorities. Want to know what Congress’ priorities are? Just look at the Farm Bill and Sequestration and the Federal Budget.

2013_Stamp_Out_HungerAnd then there are the rest of us. Today is the annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. Please put a bag of food out by your mailbox – your postal carrier will collect it and make sure it gets to a local food pantry or food bank.

Maybe if we collect enough food tomorrow – maybe if we could slow down the Postal Service the way FAA furloughs slowed down air travel – maybe Congress might actually notice that we care about hunger in America.

BTW, congratulations to the students at the Abbett Elementary School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This past week, they collected more than a ton of food for the “Stamp Out Hunger” drive.

They have their priorities straight.

I hope they all run for Congress when they grow up.

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NH Letter Carrier Risks His Own Life To Save Another From A Burning Building

  By Matt Murray | May 7, 2013 - 7:47 pm | , ,
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TonyMeme

Letter carrier have always held a special place in our hearts. It is the letter carrier who delivers our mail six days a week, but a letter carrier is much more than that. To children they can be like Santa Clause bringing gifts in the mail. To others they provide lifesaving medicine. For some the letter carrier is the only person they see every day.

For many years letter carriers have been our friends. We thank them with gifts and treats in our mailboxes at Christmas. We thank them for doing their job every day now matter what the weather may throw at them. Every day the mail gets through.

Letter carriers are also a part of our neighborhood watch program. Notifying the police if an elderly resident does not come to the door, or see that nobody has been at the house in days. They notice little things like a dog barking frantically, which alerts them to a possible problem.

On Saturday, Bill Kelly will be ever grateful to his letter carrier Tom Sapienza.

“Several people, including a mailman, ran into a burning building on Merrimack Street on Saturday looking for residents feared trapped in a fire…” (Union Leader)

Tom, a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers risked his own life to run into a burning building to look for residents. Not many people would think of the mailman as the first person to run into a burning building but that is exactly what Tom did. Then when it was over he went right back to doing what he does every day, delivering the mail.

TonyMeme“Sapienza, after being treated, returned to his postal truck, saying he wasn’t allowed to talk to reporters but wasn’t planning on going right home.

“I have to get back on my route,” Sapienza said. (Union Leader)

After risking his own life, he delivered all of the mail in his truck, all be it with a little delay.

Thank you Tommy for being an everyday hero.

Share this image on your facebook or click here to tweet.

 

NH Congresswomen Praise Keeping 6-Day Delivery While Congressman Issa Still Pushes For More USPS Cuts

  By Bill Brickley | April 11, 2013 - 7:00 am | , ,
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Congressman ISSA (photo credit Congressman Issa on Flickr)

Congressman ISSA (photo credit Congressman Issa on Flickr)New Hampshire’s members of Congress embraced the Postal Board of Governors decision today to obey the law and cancel their plans to end Saturday mail delivery this August. It was quite a different reaction from Congressman Daryl Issa (R-CA) who seems to be thinking the USPS much like himself is above the law.

In New Hampshire we are quite fortunate to have two very smart and sensible Congresswoman who actually think their job is to look out for the best interests of the citizens of their district.

Let’s contrast their reactions to Mr Issa:

“I applaud the Postal Service’s decision to cancel its plan to end Saturday mail service this summer,” Shea-Porter said. “The Postal Service is a vital resource for communities throughout New Hampshire and our country. Eliminating Saturday mail-delivery does not adequately address the issues facing the United States Postal Service and would hurt Granite Staters.”

Annie Kuster added, “I am pleased that the Postal Service will cancel its plan to end Saturday mail service, which would have unduly harmed New Hampshire businesses and communities. Instead of cutting jobs and services, the Postal Service needs sensible reform to fix the onerous pre-funding requirement for future retiree health benefits, boost innovation and efficiency, reduce costs, and provide new and improved services to New Hampshire communities.”

Mr Issa’s reaction was in sharp contrast: I am not quite sure why Mr Issa would encourage the Postal Service to break the law. Though Mr Issa has stayed one step ahead of the law  in many of his ventures its hard to fathom advising the USPS to follow his lead.

“Despite some assertions, it’s quite clear that special-interest lobbying and intense political pressure played a much greater role in the Postal Service’s change of heart than any real or perceived barrier to implementing what had been announced,” Issa said in a statement.

Mr Issa refuses to acknowledge that the congressionally mandated annual $5.5 Billion in pretending retiree health care costs is at the core of this financial crisis. Issa and many in the GOP are using this crisis to continue their war on workers we all feel every day.

There was one troubling aspect of the Boards statement today though. Mr Issa whose own legislation explored the possibility of voiding the Union contracts with the Postal Service had to be delighted in the Board of Governors recommendation to renegotiate the recently signed labor agreements with all Postal unions. NALC President Fred Rolando responded:

“The Board’s call to reopen and renegotiate the postal labor contracts is yet another sign that the Postal Service needs new executive leadership. Asking the NALC to renegotiate a contract that was just settled in January is insulting and unnecessary. The new agreement, which reduced starting pay by 25 to 33 percent and allows for major health care savings, provides for several labor-management task forces to work on ways to increase revenues and cut costs.”

I am hopeful that the Board of Governors decision today abandoning 5 day delivery will allow congress to now focus on much-needed postal reform. Especially working on a quick repeal of the onerous pre-funding issue that has caused this crisis. A feeling of hope carried the day.

There is a real opportunity for postal reform, if the postmaster general and majority on our committee are willing to work on a bipartisan spirit,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va), a member of the Government Oversight panel.

 

NALC President Fredric Rolando statement on USPS Board of Governors announcement

  By Bill Brickley | April 10, 2013 - 7:33 pm | ,
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NALC President Fredric RolandoApril 10, 2013 —NALC President Fredric Rolando issued the following statement today, in response to the USPS Board of Governors’ announcement that the Postal Service will obey the law and comply with the continuing resolution adopted in March that mandates continuation of six-day mail delivery this year. The Board restated its support for a change to 5-day delivery, but effectively conceded that the postmaster general’s claim that he could ignore the CR was wrong.

“NALC is gratified that the Board of Governors has seen the light on the law—but it is time for them to reconsider their entire “shrink to survive” strategy. Degrading the Postal Service’s last-mile network is a losing strategy. Eliminating Saturday service, which more than a third of all business mailers want to keep, will drive millions of customers away and do more harm than good. The Postal Service needs a growth strategy and the Congress must enact comprehensive reform that overhauls the USPS governance structure, provides greater pricing and product flexibility and reduces or eliminates the crushing pre-funding burden that has caused more than 90 percent of this year’s financial loss so far.

“Maintaining Saturday delivery is critical to the Postal Service’s future. Losing this competitive advantage would not only reduce mail volume and revenue—sending the USPS on a death spiral—but also would disproportionately affect small businesses, the elderly, rural communities, the one-half of the public that pays bills by mail and the many millions who lack access to reliable Internet service. And it would cost tens of thousands of jobs.

The Board’s call to reopen and renegotiate the postal labor contracts is yet another sign that the Postal Service needs new executive leadership. Asking the NALC to renegotiate a contract that was just settled in January is insulting and unnecessary. The new agreement, which reduced starting pay by 25 to 33 percent and allows for major health care savings, provides for several labor-management task forces to work on ways to increase revenues and cut costs.

“Finally, I must credit the hard work of letter carriers, whose efforts to get the message out about Saturday delivery were critical to today’s positive development. We will continue to rely on our members as the fight to protect and preserve the U.S. Postal Service continues.”

Now Is The Time For The AFL-CIO and The USPS Unions To Reach Out To Their Communities

  By Bill Brickley | April 1, 2013 - 6:30 am | ,
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Bill Brickley

Congress is currently debating issues regarding the Postal Service that will shape the its future for decades to come. The NALC has superior national leadership that keeps all of us informed on the issues and recommends when we should contact our legislators. Our challenge is that this can not be the extent of our activism if we are to survive. We must form alliances with other postal unions as well as the AFL-CIO. Equally important for us is to reach out to other groups that are fighting for economic justice as well as business groups whose survival depends on a functioning Postal Service.

We have a shared battle with our brothers of sisters of the APWU, NPMHU and the NRLCA. Together we are a formidable team. On September 27,2011 we worked with these unions and changed how the entire country views the postal crisis with the Save Americas Postal Service Rallies. This brought the outrageous prefunding issue into the national dialogue. We must recapture that spirit and solidarity if we are going to most effectively fight back against forces that want to dismantle us.

We have to connect with citizens in our rural areas and poor urban areas that will he harmed most by dismantling the USPS. We have to reach out to small business whose very existence is also at stake if the mailing industry sustains much damage. We have to work with senior citizen groups to let congress know they will not dismantle us without a fight.

The AFL CIO is currently working on extending their outreach to community partners and the civil rights, woman’s rights and the Latino movement. This is crucial for the labor movements survival as an effective counter balance to the enormous wealth and power that currently wield much control over the legislative process.

The wealthy, vote for their economic interests every time. They also convince the narrow-minded single issue voter to vote against their economic interests. The last ingredient they need to achieve an electoral victory is convincing enough information challenged voters to join them. This wealthy/uninformed coalition is the right wing base.  They remain a formidable threat. Not because of their ideas or activism just simply their vast money and the politicians they control.

The real reason the right-wing is hell-bent on destroying the Postal Service is because it’s proof that a federal agency with a unionized work force can be highly effective. These facts do not fit in well with the forces that demonize federal and union workers routinely for political gain.

We have to make our collective voices heard not just in the halls of congress but in the streets. This is the time.

 

Even the Government Accountability Office says that the USPS must keep 6 day delivery.

  By Bill Brickley | March 22, 2013 - 8:55 pm | , , ,
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Thursday afternoon the Government
Accountability Office issued a legal opinion that supported the NALC’s position that the Postmaster General does not have the law on his side in reducing mail delivery to five days a week. “The GAO agrees with an ever-growing chorus of voices that the postmaster general doesn’t have the law on his side in this matter,” said NALC President Fredric Rolando.

This legal opinion was requested by Congressman Gerry Connolly,D-VA who lauded the verdict: ” Unfortunately, the Postmaster General continues to stonewall Members of Congress, withholding his legal justifications for eliminating Saturday delivery from Postal customers and the American public,” said Connolly, a ranking member on the Subcommittee on Government Operations, in a statement. “The GAO legal opinion clearly rejects the Postal Service’s attempt to circumvent the law.”

In New Hampshire Representatives Carol Shea-Porter and Ann Kuster demonstrated their strong support for Six Day Delivery by being early co-sponsors of HR 630. This legislation protects Six Day Delivery and addresses a number of other important postal issues. Including the 2006 Congressional mandate that requires an annual $5.5 Billion in prefunding of retiree health care costs of employees not yet born. This mandate has largely put the Postal Service in their current dire financial situation. This mandate was created to prevent future insolvency but instead it is causing immediate financial problems.

Wayne Alterisio 2 Also in New Hampshire , on March 17, local citizens in Manchester gathered to rally against the proposed reduction of a day of delivery. NH State Association President Wayne Alteresio rallied the crowd with a moving speech regarding the fight to Save The Post Office. The crowd held approximately 50 signs with the names of local businesses that want to keep six day mail delivery. Also in the crowd were many signs about the negative effects on the local community if a day of delivery was eliminated. Despite the cold wind attendees left optimistic that together we can save the Postal Service.

 

URGENT ACTION NEEDED To Save Six Day Delivery!

  By Bill Brickley | March 13, 2013 - 10:43 pm |
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Please make an urgent call today to save 6 day mail delivery. NALC President Rolando outlines urgent situation:

Tomorrow, there is a possibility that Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) will offer to the Senate’s continuing resolution (CR) an amendment to strike the mandate to provide six-day mail delivery.

As soon as possible, I need you to call 888-987-3602 and urge your senator to vote against this amendment if it is offered.

The attempt to end six-day mail delivery service is an attack on the future of this great institution, on the customers who need it and the employees who make it work. Ending six-day mail delivery will threaten the viability of the Postal Service.

Your senator needs to hear from you tonight or first thing tomorrow. This is extremely urgent. Call 888-987-3602 and you’ll be patched through automatically. And please leave a voicemail message if no one answers.

In Solidarity,

Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers

Come Support Your NH USPS Workers on March 17th In Manchester

  By New Hampshire Labor News | March 13, 2013 - 10:10 pm | , , ,
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NALC Save Americas Postal Service

Rally to Protect Saturday Mail Delivery and Strengthen the Postal Service at Manchester City Hall Plaza at 12:00pm Sunday March 17th.

NALC Save Americas Postal Service

Concerned Citizens throughout America will rally in other states on March 24 to protect Saturday mail delivery and demand that Congress deliver a better plan to strenghten the Postal Service for the future.  The New Hampshire rally in Manchester will take place at City Hall Plaza on March 17 at noon because of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the 24th, and all members of the community are invited to attend.

The Postal Service’s plan to shrink the Postal Service and end six-day service is an attack on the future of this great institution, on the customers who need it, and on the employees who support it.  Many Americans – especially smaill-business owners, senior citizens and rural resident-would suffer if the strength and reach of our Postal Service is compromised.  In addition, cutting Saturday mail would delay important household and business transactions, including bills, invoices and personal communications, and may force customers to shift to high-cost competing services.

The US Postal Service is America’s only universal communications network reaching every address in America six days a week.  Established by the Constitution and using no taxpayer funding for its operations, the Postal Service is a vital public institution that New Hampshire cannot afford to be dismantled.

For more information contact Wayne Alterisio

President Obama Can Do So Much More For Labor Unions

  By Bill Brickley | February 22, 2013 - 7:00 am |
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President Obama at factory (WH Photo Pete Souza)

President Obama followed up his omission of labor unions during his Inaugural Address by doing the same at his State of The Union speech.Senator Tom Harkin, a long time advocate of working people summed up the feelings of many in the labor movement during an interview with “The Hill”.

“Not one word in there about, if you want to rebuild the middle class, you’ve got to make it easier and better for people to organize and bargain collectively for their wages and for their conditions of their employment,” Harkin continued. “Not one word about that. And to me, that is the crux of their problem — is that people don’t have any power. They don’t have any power when they’re out there on the job. And you’ve got to have a balance. You’ve got to give workers more of a power to be able to bargain for things like their wages, for pensions, for family and medical leave, and paid sick leave and things like that.

“People just are powerless, and so I was just kind of upset and really saddened that he didn’t even give a nod to labor unions.”

“And you know what?” Harkin added. “He wouldn’t be there without labor unions, and neither would half of our Democrats in the Senate, I’ll tell you that.”

President Obama is not stepping up to the plate to protect unions at any level. He would not be in the oval office today without the work of unions but he for some reason refuses to acknowledge them.

The Postal Service is the largest collection of union workers in this country and they are being decimated by congressional mandates. Congress is silently watching as Saturday mail delivery is eliminated and this will further serve to accelerate a death spiral for the Postal Service. A blow to the American people and the Labor Movement. Not one mention by our President.

Its time for President Obama to take actions that will make life better for working Americans on Main St.  The Republicans are already the party representing Wall St. We do not need another political party doing that.

President Obama, when you needed help from labor unions we were there for you. Just like unions step up and protect millions of Americans every day. It’s now time that you stand up for us.