House Committee Adopts Postal Reform Bill;
Rejects Recommendations of President's Commission

Burrus Update # 7-2004, May 13, 2004

The House Government Reform Committee voted unanimously May 12 to approve the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2004. In doing so, it resoundingly rejected the anti-worker and anti-consumer recommendations of the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service.

None of the Bush Commission's proposals to cut workers wages and benefits were adopted by the House Committee, and a Commission recommendation to authorize large-scale post office closings was also discarded.

In addition, the committee members voted to prohibit excessive 'worksharing' discounts that subsidize the mailing industry; granted the USPS greater flexibility in rate-setting; approved the transfer of military retirement costs of postal veterans to the Treasury Department; approved the release of retirement funds from escrow; and embraced the principle of uniform rates. These were all issues the APWU had identified as crucial to meaningful postal reform.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee released a "discussion draft" of its postal reform bill on May 12 as well. Although the union is withholding judgment on the Senate bill until we have analyzed it further, we have serious concerns about several provisions. We are especially concerned by proposals that would gut OWCP, and those that would continue excessive postage discounts.

Our fight is far from over, and we must remain vigilant. Please continue to monitor the APWU Web site for updates, and be prepared to contact your elected representatives.

The bill adopted by the House Committee, was, however, an important step toward real postal reform. Among the recommendations of the Presidential Commission that were excluded from the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 4341):

• Establishing a Postal Regulatory Board with the power to cut wages and benefits in order to make them "comparable" to workers in the private sector;
• Making health care and retirement benefits - now guaranteed by law - "negotiable;"
• Instructing the Postal Service to outsource mail processing, retail, maintenance, and transportation jobs - everything but mail collection and delivery - to the lowest private-sector bidder;
• Eliminating the union's no-layoff clause and making new hires subject to federal reduction-in-force (RIF) procedures;
• Creating a Postal Network Optimization Commission that would have the power to close plants with virtually no input from workers, citizens, and elected officials;
• Removing the statutory barrier against closing small post offices for economic reasons;
• Undermining collective bargaining rights by changing the ground rules for contract negotiations;
• Giving a Postal Regulatory Board the authority to reduce the scope of universal service and end the USPS monopoly on letter mail;
• Continuing below-cost postage discounts for the mailing industry that are already in place, draining badly needed revenue from the Postal Service; and
• Giving the President and Secretary of the Treasury political control over the USPS by allowing them to appoint the USPS Board of Governors without Senate confirmation or any requirement that both political parties are represented on the panel.

I want to publicly thank Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA), and Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA), John McHugh (R-NY), and Danny Davis (D-IL), who led a bipartisan effort to draft the bill. These legislators and their staffs engaged in lengthy negotiations with the APWU and other interested parties to formulate a bill that all the groups felt they could support. This was no small task.

William Burrus
President

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