All Sections ------------------------------- News & Events Pay & Benefits Departments & Divisions Members Only

Advanced Search

Printer-Friendly Page

---

---

---

An Anti-Subcontracting Bill

(This article first appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

The APWU won a major victory Nov. 15, with the introduction of a bill that would require the Postal Service to bargain with postal unions before making a commitment to significant subcontracting. The union had been strongly advocating such legislation for several months.

The bill (H.R. 4236), introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), would affect private contracts involving mail processing, mail handling, and surface transportation of mail, provided that over a 12-month period a contract involves the equivalent of $5 million or 50 work-years. If signed into law, the bill would require the USPS to bargain with the affected unions before awarding such contracts.

“This is an important win for our members,” said APWU President William Burrus. “Although we have been successful in negotiating a requirement that the Postal Service ‘notify and consult’ with the unions when it contemplates subcontracting, we have been unable to achieve real bargaining over whether or not specific activities will be subcontracted. The requirement to bargain will enhance our ability to oppose wasteful, inefficient and detrimental subcontracting.”

We applaud Rep. Lynch for introducing this bill, which will benefit the Postal Service, postal workers, and the American public. This department will work to gain co-sponsors for the legislation, and we hope to see a similar bill introduced in the Senate.

The APWU first advocated such legislation in testimony President Burrus offered to House and Senate subcommittees in July. The Postal Service, he said, “has begun to travel resolutely down the road of privatization,” with the subcontracting of postal work “just one aspect of a dangerous trend: the wholesale conversion of a vital public service to one performed privately for profit.”

Our department worked closely with congressional staff for several weeks and we had direct input on draft copies of the bill. We are pleased with the final version, but our work will not be finished until the bill becomes law.

We now ask that APWU activists contact House members and urge them to support H.R. 4236. It is imperative that members of Congress and legislators at all levels of government hear from their constituents that this legislation is important to the future of the Postal Service and to postal workers.

Grassroots Coordinators

President Burrus has authorized the hiring of five people to work with the Legislative Department as our “Grassroots Coordinators.” One of their first priorities will be to help gather co-sponsors for H.R. 4236.

They will also work on our political-campaign efforts. In recent elections, the APWU has been committing more and more resources to its field operations in an effort to ensure that issues of concern to working families are relevant during the run-up to the vote. We have put union officers and members on the ground to work with the AFL-CIO to assist in voter registration and to help get-out-the-vote. In addition, APWU field volunteers have participated in labor walks and worked the polls.

All of our field volunteers worked with the labor federation’s central and state organizations. Now we are going a step further.

After initial training at APWU headquarters, four of these new staffers will be assigned to the field, with one grassroots coordinator assigned to each region of the country: One will remain in Washington, and the others will be based in California, Florida, Illinois, and New Hampshire.

The coordinators will work under the direction of the APWU Legislative Department and will:

• Develop and maintain regional e-mail networks of local and state APWU officers, union members, and Senate and House members for the states in their regions.
  
  
• Monitor state legislative initiatives on labor-related and working-families issues.
  
  
• Monitor the voting records of state and federal legislators.
  
  
• Work with APWU state and local leaders on their COPA fund-raising efforts. They will also monitor COPA contributions to legislators and candidates.
  
  
• Develop strong working relationships with the AFLCIO central and state labor bodies in their regions.
  
  
• Work with APWU retirees and retiree chapters. Retirees have always played a major role in our fundraising and political activities, and these efforts will now be coordinated with our overall political agenda.

A Political Foundation

The coordinators program will lay the foundation for the APWU’s political activities for 2008 and beyond by creating a solid grassroots network that will give us a wide range of options for our participation in the political process.

Included will be guidance and assistance to APWU members and officers who choose to run as state delegates to national party conventions. We will also provide guidance and assistance to APWU members and officers who choose to run for “non-partisan elective offices.” (See “Hatch Act Guidelines” for more information.) Our goals will be to involve our members in every stage of the political process; to ensure that we have input; and to do all we can to advance the interests of working people.

We see the grassroots coordinator jobs as entry-level positions for enthusiastic people looking to make a career in the political arena. We anticipate that while working as coordinators these individuals will learn to appreciate the APWU and the labor movement as a whole.

We hope that the experiences and values they gain will stay with the successful applicants as they move on to careers as legislative staff members or elected officials. We also hope, of course, that the grassroots-coordinator program will fully engage greater numbers of APWU members and retirees in the political process.

[back to top]