e-Team Report, Oct. 8, 2014

Congress is home, schedule a meeting and tell them to save overnight delivery and stop mail processing closures!

Fall is in the air, kids are back to school, leaves are changing colors, and Congress has adjourned so members can return home to run for reelection.  Now that members of Congress are home, it is a perfect time to meet with lawmakers and discuss our issues – particularly in support of a moratorium on postal cuts.  APWU activists are encouraged to come together with their APWU locals and our brothers and sisters in the mail handlers, letter carriers and rural carrier unions to schedule meetings with our elected officials and their staff during the month of October.

As previously reported in the APWU e-Team, a bipartisan group of 51 senators and 160 representatives are calling for a 1-year moratorium on degrading mail service standards and closing or consolidating mail processing plants.  When meeting with lawmakers who have sent a letter or their staff, please be sure to thank them for their support.  When meeting with any of the senators or representatives who have not yet taken public action, please encourage them to do so. USPS management is already taking actions for closures in January and Congress must take action to stop them.

APWU’s Legislative Department has prepared a 1-page Leave Behind document that you can use to help educate members of Congress and their staff as to why they should support a moratorium on postal cuts.

To download and print the 1-page Congressional Leave Behind sheet, please click here.

To see if your senator has signed a letter in support of the moratorium, click here.  For representatives, click here.

After your local or chapter's meeting with any lawmaker's office, please remember to contact your Legislative and Political Grassroots coordinator to report back on the meeting. Should you need any help scheduling a meeting, your Grassroots Coordinator will be happy to help.  To find you Grassroots Coordinator's contact information, please click here.

Get involved before Election Day!

Ahead of November’s midterm elections, APWU is calling upon union activists to volunteer their time with the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2014 program.  Through Labor 2014 labor-to-labor efforts, union volunteers are educating union households about which political candidates stand with us and which candidates stand against us.  With so many tight races nationwide, APWU participation will be crucial in electing pro-labor candidates and stopping the attacks on working families.

To join in, click here or contact your AFL-CIO Central Labor Council today!

Thank you and please forward this message to your friends, family, and coworkers and urge them to join us in this effort to protect speedy and reliable mail service.  If you aren't already subscribed to APWU e-Team updates, you can sign up here.