Continued....

"Elderly citizens rely upon the mail service to deliver life saving medicines, the business community transacts financial activity to the tune of tens of billions daily through mail delivery, commercial enterprises entrust the Postal Service for timely advertising that cannot be delayed an extra day and those millions of citizens who use postal money orders as a means of transmitting monies through the use of Postal money orders to relatives in their native country would be denied this timely service.

Personal and business communications are meaningful only if delivery is timely. To reduce mail delivery one additional day would deny every citizen in our country this expected and deserving service. During the weeks of the ten holidays when Postal services are curtailed, a further reduction in the days of delivery would result in weeks when mail would be delivered only three days. This alternative was studied in 1978 and the results were negative. Postal management rightfully rejected the idea and continued the historic practice of six day delivery. The nation and its citizens have been the beneficiaries.

This announced study is a part of a postal management game plan to pressure Congress into serious consideration of postal reform. It is not coincidental that the announcement was made the day prior to USPS appearance before the U.S. Congress on the subject of postal reform and just one week following the letter from the Board of Governors to the president. The most recent announcement is but one piece of a full court press to have the media repeat the canned message. In addition, the postal unions are accustomed to these hectic announcements just prior to or during contract negotiations.

Three of the four major unions are presently awaiting interest arbitration and the National Association of Letter Carriers will begin negotiations in a matter of months. This effort to pollute the debate over decent wages and working conditions for the dedicated employees has not worked in the past and will ensure the full opposition of postal labor unions once again.The announced two billion dollar deficit represents but 3% of postal operating revenue and the legal mandate is to break even 'over time.' Over the past seven years the Postal Service has achieved billions of dollars in profits even accounting for the expected deficit.

Any serious effort to reduce expenses would include the elimination of the hundreds of millions in dollars given to managers and supervisors annually in the form of EVA payments and the drastic reduction of the discounts afforded major mailers that have evolved into an unwarranted subsidy. Approximately ten billion dollars are lost annually from these subsidies that cannot be justified. Their elimination would result in a return to financial stability and an actual reduction in first class rates.

The reasons for our objections to this predetermined result is not based on a fear of lost job opportunities. The compliment of employees who we are privileged to represent is determined by volume, not days of delivery. And this proposal would have marginal impact upon the volume that would continue to require transportation and processing and it is expected that even with the proposed reduction in delivery, the days of retail services would continue unchanged. Our contract requires that any negative impact would be absorbed by the 25,000 temporary employees currently employed.

The American Postal Workers Union and its members will oppose this effort with every resource at our disposal because it is bad for our country and its citizens. Our commitment is to provide the best postal services in the world and we will not stand by and permit its demise."

Bill Burrus
Executive Vice President