Guffey Defends USPS Viability, Tentative Contract Agreement on CNBC

In a televised discussion of the financial challenges facing the USPS, APWU President Cliff Guffey defended the union’s Tentative Agreement for a new contract with the Postal Service and reminded viewers the nation’s mail system “is the backbone of a multi-trillion dollar business in this country.“

Guffey appeared in an interview today on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” segment about the viability of the USPS.

The union president said the recently negotiated Tentative Agreement benefits both parties by preserving jobs, providing for more flexible work hours, and bringing work back in-house to reduce profiteering by USPS contractors.

Guffey also reminded viewers that the Postal Service’s financial problems are largely caused by Congress, which in 2006 began using the USPS as a “cash cow” to drain revenue from the mail system, and by the severe economic recession.

The union president faced off against a representative from Citizens Against Government Waste, who charged that the USPS must close facilities and that it failed to address its “workforce problem” in agreeing to a new contract with the APWU. (CAGW is a self-styled “watch dog” group that favors privatizing the Postal Service and is funded by oil and tobacco companies and conservative foundations.)