e-Team Report, June 28, 2013

Bills for Postal Reform Need to Be Heard!

There are now three important bills in the House and one in the Senate dealing with various aspects of postal reform.

In the Senate:

• S.316: The Postal Service Protection Act, introduced on 2/13/13 by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), (28 co-sponsors), would end the pre-funding mandate, protect delivery standards, and refund overpayments the USPS made to federal retirement systems.

In the House:

• H.R. 630: The Postal Service Protection Act, introduced on 2/13/13 by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), (163 co-sponsors). This is the House version of S.316, explained above.
• H.R. 961: United States Postal Service Stabilization Act, introduced on 3/5/13 by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), (131 co-sponsors), would end the pre-funding mandate, recalculate pension liabilities, and refund overpayments the Postal Service made to federal retirement accounts.
• H.R. 2459: Protect Overnight Delivery Act, introduced on 6/20/13 by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), (70 co-sponsors), would restore overnight delivery standards.

And then we have the draft postal bill released by the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). This draft has not yet been submitted as an actual bill, but has been posted by Rep. Issa for review and comment.

One has to wonder why, if there is really any interest in constructive postal reform, one of the existing bills with many co-sponsors has not yet been brought up to begin the debate. As APWU President Cliff Guffey noted, Rep. Issa’s draft legislation would “punish postal workers, privatize much of the USPS and deprive the American people of vital services.” 

Could it be that this is the only type of postal reform that interests Rep. Issa?

Issa’s Draft Bill is FAR from Compromise

If you were to take some recent news reports at face value, you might have gotten the impression that Rep. Issa is working with Democrats on a compromise, bipartisan postal reform bill.  In an article titled, “Issa Reaches out to Democrats on Postal Reform,” DC-basedThe Hill newspaper reported that Issa is inviting Democrats to join him in his effort to preserve “a healthy, thriving Postal Service.” 

In light of such undeserved praise, APWU Legislative and Political Director Gary Kloepfer reminds us, “This is not a compromise.”  What goes entirely unmentioned in The Hill article is any reference to reduction in delivery standards, the consolidation of additional mail processing facilities, the closure of more post offices, increased health insurance costs to Postal Workers, cuts to benefits, and the promotion of contracting out postal work.  While The Hill reports that Issa has worked to make his bill less controversial, it somehow fails to note all of these extremely controversial and wrongheaded policies contained in the bill.

To read The Hill’s misguided take on Issa’s postal bill, please click here.

To get the REAL story on Issa’s deeply disturbing bill, please click here.

July 1st is National Postal Workers Day!

Monday, July 1st is National Postal Workers Day.  The men and women of the U.S. Postal Service are among the best workers in our nation.  Postal workers process 40 percent of the world’s mail and deliver to 152 million homes in every corner of the country. The USPS is considered one of the most trusted companies by consumers.

For doing everything that you do, the APWU Legislative and Political Department wishes you a well-earned National Postal Workers Day!

For more on the National Postal Workers Day, please click here.

Break the Chained CPI… No Cuts to COLAs!

The APWU is urging union members and retirees to participate in rallies across the country on Tuesday, July 2, to protest a proposal that would put retirement benefits for millions of workers on the chopping block. The threat is from a proposal to use a new method to calculate cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for postal and federal retirees and Social Security recipients. The new method — known as the “chained CPI” — would result in much smaller cost-of-living increases than the current formula establishes.

Join the Alliance for Retired Americans in forming a Human Chain at congressional offices, federal buildings and other key sites in locations around the nation to STOP CUTS to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). 

Social Security COLAs, intended to help retirees keep up with a rising cost of living, already lag behind the REAL increase costs because higher healthcare costs are not properly weighted.  Despite that, many in Congress are now proposing a benefit cut by tying the COLA to the chained CPI, a smaller measure of inflation.  This is not a small change or merely a “technical change;” it will result in an immediate cut and will compound over the years, taking much-needed money out of the hands of seniors. 

Postal retirees’ annual COLA increases are based on the same index used for Social Security. If the chained CPI is adopted, the proposed cut will impact Social Security recipients AND postal and federal retirees! 

We are calling on APWU members and retirees to join a Human Chain against the Chained CPI. 

To download a fact sheet, find the event closest to you, and to learn more, click here.

SCOTUS Decision to Overturn DOMA Expands Access to Federal Benefits

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that blocked the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.  DOMA resulted in the exclusion of thousands of same-sex spouses of federal workers from receiving benefits such as those under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP), the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS).  

The Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Acting Director, Elaine Kaplan, released a statement calling the Supreme Court decision a “welcome development in the continuing quest to ensure equal treatment under the law to all Americans.”  The Department of Justice and OPM will be working with federal agencies to ensure proper implementation of the Supreme Court decision. 

The Department of Defense has already issued a statement welcoming the decision and will begin to implement changes with OPM guidance soon.  The Postal Service has not yet issued a statement on the decision, but postal workers and their families – all families – will also benefit from the court decision.   

For more on the expansion to federal benefits to same-sex spouses, please click here.