The Senate passed an amended version of the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789) on April 25 by a vote of 62-37. “Although the bill is flawed, the amended version is far better than the original,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “That is a result of the tremendous effort of APWU members, postal customers, and elected officials who appreciate the importance of the Postal Service to American life. Thank you for your hard work.”
The bill will provide the USPS, which is facing imminent collapse, with short-term financial relief, by returning $11 billion in USPS overpayments to federal pension funds to the Postal Service. “Keep in mind,” Guffey said, “this is money paid by postal customers, workers and the Postal Service – not taxpayers.”
The bill also will provide some protection for service standards for a minimum of three years. “Although we sought stronger, longer safeguards, this is an improvement over the original bill, which did nothing to preserve service,” Guffey said. “Protecting service is essential to preserving the Postal Service,” he said.
The bill fails to provide the Postal Service with the relief it needs to meet the challenges of the future, Guffey said. “Although the bill will provide the USPS with limited relief from the requirement to pre-fund healthcare benefits for future retirees, it does not provide sufficient relief. As a result, the USPS will not have access to the capital it needs to meet the challenges of the future,” he said.
The bill also will have devastating consequences for the thousands of postal and federal employees who were injured on the job and who receive compensation from the Office of Workers Compensation Program (OWCP), Guffey noted.
“We will now take our fight to the House of Representatives,” Guffey said, “where we hope to improve the bill.
“We call on our members, small businesses, individual customers, and lawmakers to re-double our efforts to Save America’s Postal Service.”
The postal service success begins at the lowest level of service and they fail miserably. They answer to not one customer, they answer to a union and that is all. They do not care if they offend or fail in delivery or never deliver. They are held accountable to no one. Try to accomplish anything through their phone numbers. Nothing but an hour on hold and no real person will ever pick up. Try calling your local office, this local office has the phone set on rapid busy beginning at 7a.m. and never will answer. Go in and make a complaint of no mail delivery and they will black ball you and you will never get your mail. This is not the way to run a business. Any private corporation or business would close if they operated as the USPS. It is from the ground up and and ends with the corrupt thugs that head the unions, all part of this disaster. How sad that it once was a well respected, very exact and diligent form of service. CItizens could always count on the mail to get through. Received only one delivery to this mail box in a full 5 days. Regular mail delivery person is on leave and USPS calls this route a “down route”. “They may have subs when available to deliver, if they can find the time to run the route.” Welcome to the postal service.
Today, when 60% of Americans have broadband internet, misinformation is easy to broadcast to the “wired” majority. The Post Office is required to serve ALL Americans at an affordable cost. Anything less is unconstitutional.
The President should veto anything that fails to:
Refund the multiple overpayments and restore reasonable retiree health care benefits pre-funding
Retain six-day delivery
Stop all closures, including those that are being marketed as “relocations”
Provide the Postal Regulatory Commission authority to prevent closures based on their effect on their communities
Maintain current service standards
Allow USPS to compete on a level playing field rather than been stopped from providing innovative new services at every turn by private entities
However, one side of Congress is so stubborn these days that any bill has only a 4% chance of passing. Passage of the Postal “reform” bill will therefore be touted as a grand success – even if it’s just another wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The President won’t veto what emerges from Congress. He will have no choice but to sign whatever Congress approves.
Fight for HR3591. Do not compromise.
Joba & tabrae: If you want to go work for $10 an hour, no vacation, no sick leave, etc. be my guest. While you talk about corrupt unions with six figure salaries, check out the upper echelon postal management salaries. PMG makes $384K for starters. Do you think he and his minions deserve all that? The president of the US makes $400K!
Thank you Postal Colorado for an actual viable opinion
When dose the house vote on s1789,when dose Vera kicks in?
A fact. If the USPS didn’t have contracts with the respective Unions then the employees would not have a “no- lay-off” clause/protection. Which would mean that the work force would have been cut alot and most employees would no longer have a job, including yourself most likely.
I agree…I have withdrawn from the corrupt unions and will not give them any more of my money! Please realize APWU, NALC, NRLCA and NMHU are all part of the SEIU….which is socialistic and corrupt to its very core. GET OUT AND STOP SUPPORTING THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR COUNTRY!
Wow, what exactly is in this that helps the USPS? Sum it up…. lets cut staffing by 18% with incentives to be down to a level needed for 5 day delivery, on centralized delivery routes with a smaller processing network and fewer retail outlets, but lets block those closings, that change to 5 day delivery, and instead of central delivery we’ll just move doorside to curbside (does nothing)…. Hmmmmm that just means that the 400,000 of us that will be left will be back to 12 hour days 6 days a week. If even one of those people making ammendments and voting on them had ever spent even a minute carrying mail perhaps there would be reason and logic involved, but this is useless and is just a way to say they did something for their states or districts…. This is so disheartening. It is not Dem or GOP, it is just useless.
Cliff Guffey, one of the most corrupt Union Officials along with Fred Rolando of the NALC, the APWU nor the NALC speak not for their members but for their own personal agendas and union dues for their 6 figure paychecks, many workers who daily have to fight both Union and management ( abusive as they are ). welcome Privatization to a large extent, take a poll and one would be surprised.