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Our Action Plan to Fight Consolidation

(This article was first published in the July/August 2006 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

The specter of excessing has loomed large in postal workers’ lives seemingly forever, and its possibility is always a source of anxiety to the rank and file. That’s why management’s concerted effort to consolidate postal services in every corner of the country could be — unless we step up to the plate to battle it — a form of institutional excessing, with the lives of thousands of postal workers and their families disrupted.

“The issue is of importance to a large segment of the American population and we will have the opportunity to help this to become a vital concern.”

As Uncle Sam is used to saying, “I want you!” You may not want consolidation, but consolidation plans may include you, your friends, and dozens of your closest co-workers.

President Burrus has charged me with the activation of the APWU plan to combat consolidation, and I will be coordinating the efforts of locals, state organizations, business agents, and national officers. This fight to preserve our mail — the people’s Postal Service — will be staged largely in the public domain. Central to our plan is a media campaign in each area being affected by the Postal Service’s Evolutionary Network Development (END) program.

The APWU Strategy

It is important that every rank and file member understand the APWU strategy to thwart the USPS plan to consolidate mail services. As President Burrus pointed out in a recent letter to local and state presidents, appropriate legal challenges will not be enough:

“We must recognize that our traditional forms of struggle — grievances, NLRB charges, lawsuits — are not likely to be the most effective methods in this effort. This is a battle that must be waged in the court of public opinion.”

That is why, Burrus explained to the presidents, our campaign will be focused on taking the union message “to the people.” The campaign will include TV ads, radio commercials, op-ed articles and letters to the editor, emails, voicemail phone messages, petitions, stickers, postcards to elected officials, and face-to-face visits with legislators — all advancing our theme: Network redesign will mean a reduction in mail service, especially for individual citizens and small businesses.

President Burrus has established a goal of collecting two million signatures nationwide, with citizens affixing their names to post cards expressing opposition to the network realignment plan. “The voices of ordinary citizens and small businesses have been excluded from any consideration of postal realignment,” Burrus said, “but we intend to change that.”

Active Involvement Among Members

In order to gather this many signatures, we have given each state a target, based on population. State presidents are being asked to coordinate the effort by apportioning the goal among locals.

After the state presidents have set the local goals, national headquarters will provide the necessary materials to the locals themselves.

“The active involvement of APWU members is imperative, but that alone will not be sufficient,” Burrus told the APWU presidents. “We will ask locals to establish working committees that will coordinate a multitude of tasks: postcard-signing and petition drives among postal consumers, phones calls and visits to legislators, e-mail campaigns, and phone banks.”

The ultimate goal, our APWU president emphasized, is to generate support among elected officials for legislation that requires community involvement at every step of postal network consolidation.” The effort will be capped by a presentation of the signed postcards to the appropriate legislators.

Alliances Will Be Key

Our community outreach plan is ambitious and therefore we must attract actively involved allies in our struggle, individuals and organizations most likely to suffer if postal services are reduced.

We not only must identify these partners, but educate and encourage them to take action. Business groups, senior citizens, residents of rural communities, community activists, residents of poor neighborhoods — all have as much of a stake in this fight as we do.

“Different constituencies may be motivated by diverse concerns,” Burrus said. “Businesses and residents may be motivated by concern that their mail will not arrive at its destination in a timely manner. Some groups may be concerned by the loss of the local postmark. Others may be motivated by concern for the effect on the local economy.”

As the END plan itself will take time, our campaign is expected to continue for as much as two years. The issue is of importance to a large segment of the American population and we will have the opportunity to help this to become a vital concern. As it affects so much of the nation, so, too, will it need the dedicated efforts of a large segment of our union.

You, the member, will be key to our success. As Burrus said to you all in his message to the state and local presidents: “You are an important part, and we shall need your active involvement.”

Two Key Arbitrations

I am working with Industrial Relations Director Greg Bell on two arbitrations that contain issues that I have long been trying to see resolved. One issue involves other postal employees entering our crafts on limited duty in a full-time status. The other arbitration concerns returning work to our crafts that is currently performed by Executive and Administrative Schedule (EAS) employees. Hopefully, these cases will be decided before we begin contract negotiations.

In Fond Memory

I mourn the recent passing of two long-time friends, who also were friends to thousands of APWU members.

The first is our retired Secretary-Treasurer, Bob Tunstall — if there were baseball cards for union officers, his would be a valuable “keeper.” And the second friend we’ve lost in the last few months is Tony Mastis, a good friend of mine from the Northeast Massachusetts APWU Local. Those of you who knew Tony as well as I did would probably agree that if there were Bob Tunstall baseball cards, they would be valuable and Tony Mastis would be bootlegging them.

I’ll miss them both and remember our times together fondly.

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