Texas AFL-CIO Passes Resolution to Support the Public Postal Service
President Dimondstein is a Keynote Speaker at the Convention
August 2, 2019
On July 26, the Texas AFL-CIO adopted the resolution Fight to Save the Postal Service at their 60th Constitutional Convention. The resolution was introduced by Texas Postal Worker Union President Carlton Williams and two NALC delegates.
APWU President Mark Dimondstein discussed as keynote speaker at the convention the struggles facing postal and other federal workers across the country and the path forward:
Where our members work and proudly serve in the public sector, the public good is being undermined and workers demonized by corporate powers that want their hands on the public till. Public education is being defunded and sabotaged. VA medical services are cutback leading to dangerous results. Social Security neighborhood offices are being closed. Social Security and Medicare are in the constant cross hairs of budget cuts. Everything that stands for the public good -- public libraries, parks, hospitals, education, utilities, transportation and yes public postal services as are our public sector unions, are all under attack aimed at privatization. Privatization simply represents a transfer of wealth from public ownership and decently paid union workers to the profits of companies paying non-union, non-living wages…
With [the] solidarity from the National AFL-CIO and so many of you and your unions, we waged the successful Stop Staples fight, against a dirty deal of privatizing retail post offices by placing them into Staples stores. Indeed the U.S. Mail is Not for Sale! and with all of your solidarity and united with the public we will not only defeat postal privatization but win expanded services as postal banking and vote by mail. Our movement, our time!...
Brothers and sister, yes, we have powerful and organized adversaries. But, guess what, there is a whole lot more of us then them…When we learn to unite and fight, when we dismissed the divide-and-conquer schemes of corporate America… we will actually realize our power, and that we can and will win!”
The Texas AFL-CIO is one of the largest state federations in the country. Close to 400 convention delegates represented dozens of unions including NALC, CWA, AFSCME, UNITE HERE and others.
Click here to read the Fight to Save the Postal Service resolution passed by the Texas AFL-CIO.