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Postal Governors Approve Agreement
That PRC Says Could Cost Millions
(12/12/07) The USPS Board of Governors approved a Negotiated Service Agreement on Dec. 11 that had been sharply criticized by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The commission concluded in October that the Postal Service could lose more than $45 million if the agreement with Bank of America is implemented. [read more]
Postal Regulatory Commission:
USPS
Could Lose Millions in Proposed Deal
(10/29/07) The Postal Service could lose more than $45 million if a proposed agreement with the Bank of America Corporation is implemented, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) concluded in early October, but the commission decided nonetheless that the agreement could be justified under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. [read more]
Burrus
Testifies Before Senate:
USPS on Path to Privatization
(07/26/07) The USPS “has begun to travel resolutely down the road of privatization,” APWU President William Burrus told a Senate subcommittee on July 25, “without authorization from Congress” — or the American people. The subcontracting of postal work, he warned, “is just one aspect of a dangerous trend: the wholesale conversion of a vital public service to one performed privately for profit.”
[read
more - 07/26/07 APWU Web News Article]
[read
more - 09/01/07 APWU
magazine article]
APWU Sues USPS Advisory Committee
For Conducting Policy-Making in Secret
(06/06/07) The APWU, together with an organization representing a coalition of consumers and nonprofit mailers, has filed a suit challenging secret policy-making by a Postal Service advisory committee. The panel, the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, is made up of trade associations that represent large business mailers. Co-chaired by major mailer representatives and postal officials, MTAC — acting through “work groups” — commissions studies and makes recommendations to senior USPS management on postal operations, postal rates, and postal regulations. [read more]
Contracting Out:
Does Opposition Depend on Who Is Affected?
(05/03/07) In an update for union members, APWU President William Burrus asks, “Does union opposition to contracting out depend on who is affected?” The APWU, he notes, has consistently fought subcontracting. Recent battles have focused on excessive worksharing postage discounts, which are just another form of contracting out. [read more]
Burrus Testifies at Oversight Hearing
(05/01/07) Even though the APWU staunchly opposed postal reform because it seemed to be “a veiled effort to undermine collective bargaining,” President William Burrus told lawmakers that the union would lend its best efforts to making the new business model work. “We begin a new era in the long and proud history of a Postal Service that predates the founding of our country,” Burrus said in April 17 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia. The panel was holding its first oversight hearing since the enactment of postal reform legislation in December. [read more]
House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on USPS
(04/18/07) Testifying at the first congressional oversight hearing since postal reform legislation was enacted, APWU President William Burrus told a House panel that the question of which postal work may be subcontracted should be resolved through collective bargaining, not determined by congressional mandate. “In 1970, union support for the Postal Reorganization Act was predicated on the elimination of a congressional role in these matters,” he notes in a recent update for union members. “Returning congressional supervision of our contract under the cloak of ‘public policy concerns’ would undermine our right to determine conditions of employment for postal employees through bargaining,” he added. [read more]
Union Encourages USPS Board of Governors
To Approve Regulatory Commission Ruling
(03/09/07) The APWU is encouraging the USPS Board of Governors to approve the Feb. 26 “recommended decision” of the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). In a March 8 letter, union President William Burrus said the PRC’s decision, which rejected the Postal Service’s proposed rate structure, is “fundamentally correct.” The postal Board of Governors must implement the PRC ruling or return it to the commission for further consideration. The Board of Governors can overrule the decision only by a unanimous vote. [read more]
Strange Bedfellows
(03/01/07) The APWU and a conservative think tank are in rare agreement: We both contend that yearly increases in the number of delivery points are not a financial burden on the Postal Service. “We agree that the hype about delivery-point growth was merely a talking point for the advocates of postal reform,” APWU President William Burrus said in a recent update for union members. “Like many of the other myths advanced in that effort, the ‘burden’ of new customers has no foundation in economic analysis or good business practice.” [read more]
PRC Decision a Big Win
For Postal Customers, APWU
(02/26/07) The APWU — along with individual customers and small businesses — achieved a significant victory Feb. 26, when the Postal Regulatory Commission announced its recommended decision on a USPS request to increase rates: The PRC rejected the Postal Service’s proposed rate structure, and instead endorsed an APWU suggestion to increase postage for individual first-class letters to only 41 cents, instead of 42 cents as the Postal Service requested. The commission also echoed the APWU assertion that discounts for presorted mail should not exceed the costs that the Postal Service avoids when large mailers engage in “worksharing.” [read more]
Book Assails Corporate
Influence on Postal Service
(02/20/07) A new book that exposes how Postal Service operations are being molded to suit the interests of corporate mailers and USPS competitors at the expense of workers and consumers has become a “must-read” for union and community activists. Preserving the People's Post Office, published by Ralph Nader's Center for Study of Responsive Law, the book traces the history of recent postal “reform” efforts and exposes how corporate interests and conservative ideologues are conspiring in efforts to reshape the nation’s postal service.
Congress Approves Postal ‘Reform’ Bill
(01/01/07) After more than 11 years of consideration, Congress passed a far-reaching postal reform bill in the closing hours of the 109th Congress. Under procedures normally reserved for non-controversial matters, the House and Senate approved the 167-page Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 9. President Bush signed it into law Dec. 20. [read more]
