Issa’s Draft Bill ‘Deeply Disturbing,’ APWU Says

A draft postal bill released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on June 13 would punish postal workers, privatize major portions of the USPS, and deprive the American people of vital services, said APWU President Cliff Guffey.

“We will examine the draft more thoroughly in the coming days and participate in discussions with lawmakers and other stakeholders,” Guffey said, “but our initial review is deeply disturbing.

“The draft bill would turn the USPS into a private, for-profit operation. It would do virtually nothing to strengthen the Postal Service’s ability to serve the communications needs of our nation,” he said.

A section-by-section summary of the bill reveals the draft bill would:

Punish Workers

• Prohibit the USPS and postal unions from negotiating protection against layoffs [p. 6]
• Require unions to renegotiate current contracts that include protection against layoffs; [p. 6]
• Immediately increase postal workers’ health insurance costs [p. 6]
• Allow employees’ fringe benefits to return to pre-1971 levels [p. 7]
• Restructure contract negotiations to impose one party’s final offer if bargaining fails to reach a settlement [p. 7]
• Reduce compensation for injured employees with dependents and force them to retire as soon as they become eligible [p. 7]

Deprive Customers of Vital Services

• Impose a two- to three-day delivery standard for first-class mail [pp. 5-6]
• Close post offices, stations and branches [p. 2]
• Consolidate additional mail processing facilities [p. 6]
• Reduce door delivery and eliminate Saturday letter delivery [p. 1]

Privatize Postal Services

• Privatize postal retail services. It would prohibit customers from appealing a decision to close a post office, station or branch if a contract postal unit is opened within two miles. [p. 2]
• Establish “competition advocates” to promote contracting out [p. 11]
• Establish a “temporary governance authority” whose broad powers would end only after the USPS has two consecutive years of profitability. [p. 3]
• Require large contractors to give preference to former career USPS employees who were laid off from the Postal Service for the first two years after enactment of the bill. [p. 12]

Harm Postal Finances

• Re-amortize the pre-funding requirement, but retain the obligation to pre-fund 100 percent of health benefit costs for future retirees [p. 10]
• Maintain limits on postage rate increases, restricting them to no more than the Consumer Price Index [p. 7]
• Fail to refund USPS overpayments into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) accounts [p. 10]
• Unreasonably restrict new services [p. 8-9]