Does Your Representative Support Our People’s Postal Service?
Confirm Your Voter Status Before Election Day!
October 4, 2018
(This article first appeared in the September/October 2018 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)
By Legislative & Political Department Director Judy Beard
The 2018 Midterm elections are quickly approaching! On Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, one-third of the U.S. Senate, every U.S. House Representative, dozens of governorships, and countless local and state positions are in play. These candidates want our vote. Before you head to the polls, find out where these candidates stand on preventing the privatization, in part or in full, of the United States Postal Service.
Privatization means ending our publicly owned and operated Postal Service to be replaced by private corporate interests. It means ending our jobs that pay a living wage and jeopardizing our hard-earned retirement and healthcare.
To see if your representative supports House Resolution 993, (which calls for Congress to ensure that the USPS is “not subject to privatization,” go to tiny.cc/993. We have more than 190 sponsors so far, both Democrats and Republicans.
We want members of Congress to know their constituents care about maintaining universal service, and that you are watching how they vote on issues that matter to postal workers and members of their communities.
If your representatives have co-sponsored H. Res. 993, please call or write them to thank them. If not, urge them to do so. To connect to your member’s office, call 1-800-402-1001.
Educating family, friends and co-workers is the key to winning this fight. Let them know that plans to sell off the Postal Service would threaten the promise to serve all communities – rich or poor, urban or rural – at the same low price, and also result in a decrease in delivery. The reduction could go as low as three days a week, or you may have to pick up your mail at one central location.
Today, our Postal Service can keep its promise enshrined in the U.S. Constitution – providing affordable and reliable mail service to all Americans regardless of their health or wealth, who they are or where they live - all without receiving a single dime of tax-payer money. Ask your family and friends to make the call to save our public Postal Service.
Confirm Your Voter Status Before Election Day!
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 17 states have new restrictive voter laws. Voters are being purged from election rolls throughout the country. Visit canivote.org to verify your registration status or contact your local board of elections, and have your co-workers, friends and neighbors do the same.
Verify dates of early voting — the process of vote by mail (called absentee voting in some states). Please remember to watch out for misinformation. For accurate information, call your APWU local union office or the AFLCIO’s Central Labor Council/State Federation to find out about your voting status, labor-endorsed candidates, ballot initiatives and to sign up to volunteer and get out the vote.
COPAmatic Captains Lead the Way
At the APWU’s 24th Biennial National Convention in Pittsburgh, we tried something new for the APWU Committee on Political Action (COPA). The Legislative & Political Department recruited and trained 50 “COPAmatic Captains” – leaders from each state with a mission to sign up their state’s delegation to be COPAmatic.
COPAmatic contributors give automatic, reoccurring contributions to COPA – the most popular of which are payroll deductions for active members and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) annuity deductions for retirees. Thanks to the captains’ inspiring grassroots activism, we doubled the number of convention delegates giving COPAmatically – a jump from 600 to 1,200 automatic contributors! Several states, including New Hampshire, Colorado, Iowa, Delaware, Nevada, and Vermont signed up 100% of their attendees.
Leading by example, these captains and delegates are taking the message home about how and why to give COPAmatically. Contact COPA Coordinator Janice Kelble at 603-934-5022 to learn more or to volunteer in your area.