THE BULLETIN BOARD
October 2011
[October 1st]At 492 Rallies, Workers Say: 'Save the Postal Service'
excerpted from the APWU News Bulletin 23-2011
They chanted. They cheered. Donning red, white and blue quot;Save America's Postal Service" t-shirts, postal workers and concerned citizens carried signs and marched in front of congressional offices across the country to tell the real story about the Postal Service's financial crisis and to build support for legislation that would restore stability to the USPS.
"We don't need a bailout! We just want to get the mail out," postal workers chanted. Ralliers encouraged people to sign petitions while passing motorists honked and waved to show support.
The scene was repeated in cities across the country as the American Postal Workers Union, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association marked Sept. 27 as a national day of action to "Save America's Postal Service."
Read the entire article at the APWU website.
[October 1st]Issa's 'Postal Destruction' Bill Passes House Subcommittee:
Bill Would Authorize Layoffs, Force Out Senior Employees First
excerpted from the APWU News Bulletin 22-2011
A bill that would destroy the Postal Service as we know it passed a House subcommittee on Sept. 21 by a vote of eight to five, along party lines. Republicans voted in favor of the bill; Democrats voted against it. The bill, H.R. 2309, was co-sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), chairman of the postal subcommittee.
Prior to the vote, Rep. Issa amended the bill, which he first introduced on June 23, to include numerous provisions that are even more controversial than those contained in the original version:
The amended version includes a provision to grant authority to a newly-established control board to carry out layoffs, in spite of any provisions in collective bargaining agreements that might limit them. In addition, it says that employees who are eligible for retirement must be laid off before employees who are ineligible, and dictates that retirement-eligible employees with the longest service must be separated first. The new language also forbids the payment of severance pay to retirement-eligible employees.
The new version of the bill continues provisions from the original that would empower a newly-created "solvency authority" to unilaterally cut wages and abolish benefits.
Continue reading the full article at the APWU website.
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