Tampa, FL – On March 20, over 60 workers with the American Postal Worker Union (APWU) held a public demonstration in Tampa, Florida to bring awareness to attacks on the postal service. The Tampa APWU action was one of over 250 held across the country.

“The post office is not for sale, and it never will be!” chanted workers as they marched up and down the road handing out informational flyers to passing cars to raise awareness about the issue.

The right to a federal mail service is protected in the constitution, which means that its privatization would be illegal. Despite this, President Trump has been considering transferring U.S. Postal Service to the Department of Commerce and privatizing it, which would have the effect of cutting jobs and raising shipping costs. Privatizing the post office is only one of many attempts the president has made on public services, including his attacks on the Department of Education.

Postal workers with the National Association of Letter Carriers will be holding a similar national day of action to fight against privatization this Sunday, March 23.

#TampaFL #FL #Labor #APWU #USPS #Postal

The focus of the action was primarily the national contract for the letter carrier craft. The NALC and USPS have been negotiating for nearly two years. Rank-and-file members of NALC have been frustrated with the lack of transparency and updates on negotiations from national leaders like NALC president Brian Renfroe. These frustrations came to a head at the union's recent national convention, where Renfroe would have been removed from office on counts of neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming of an officer, but political savvy and manipulation of procedure allowed him to escape that fate. A reform movement is brewing.

Other points of emphasis were more local in scope, addressing issues of widespread and rampant wage theft of carriers across the broader Milwaukee area, as well as major issues of harassment and lack of respect for carriers from management.

Will Shroeder, a steward out of the North Milwaukee Station, served as emcee for the event, leading the crowd with a rousing speech and chanting.

“We’re out here today to demand a contract. We shouldn’t have to be out here fighting for ourselves as we’ve recently passed a resolution that would force national to put on public contract campaigns as well as an open bargaining resolution, but national has continued to leave us in the dark and give us empty promises. It’s been 500-plus days since our contract has expired and that's 500 days too many – especially when our membership has no clue as to what Renfroe and the USPS are up to behind closed doors,” Shroeder said.

He continued, “We’ve had record inflation over the last two years and our union has been incapable of providing for us and our families and we need to let them and the USPS that enough is enough and that we want a contract now!”

The rally featured speakers from Teamsters Local 344, AFSCME Local 526, and the American Federation of Teachers Local 212. Members of the Amalgamated Transportation Union Local 998 and the International Association of Machinists were scattered throughout the crowd, demonstrating working class solidarity.

After the speeches, the assembled crowd picketed outside the downtown office, chanting for an end to wage theft and for a new contract and greater respect.

Mere days after the National Day of Action, a tentative agreement between NALC and USPS was announced. The agreement, lauded by the sellout Renfroe as an historic achievement, has come under intense fire from rank-and-file members for its concessions and paltry wage increases. The next step in this process is a national vote on the contract. A vote no campaign coordinated by the reform oriented Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) is anticipated.

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #Labor #NALC #USPS

Milwaukee, WI – On Sunday, November 5, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 2 hosted an energetic rally outside the United States Postal Service city headquarters in downtown Milwaukee. 150 NALC members and supporters joined the rally to raise public awareness about the poor working conditions at USPS.

NALC Branch 2 is demanding an end to wage theft, harassment and retaliation. NALC local leaders highlighted how little the USPS has done in the face of routine armed robberies of their employees, even after city carrier Aundre Cross was tragically murdered during a robbery while working his route last year.

Some of the highlights of the rally were speeches from various NALC 2 stewards about the need for carriers to unite and to no longer tolerate be intimidated into working at unsafe speeds.

“This union isn’t the president, it’s not the stewards, it's all of us! Management is organized against us and we need to be organized to protect ourselves!,” said NALC 2 Steward William Schroeder.

NALC 2 stewards exposed how the USPS has weaponized new technology and “performance statistics” against carriers to try to force a speed-up. NALC 2 stewards say the USPS has used scanner data to accuse employees of being “stationary” for more than 30 minutes during the course of a shift, which can be up to 12 hours, in order to unjustly withhold pay from those workers.

The union said the USPS has paid out over a million dollars in non-compliance grievance settlements in 2023 alone, and management is acting in bad faith by refusing to correct the root causes of the grievances. At the rally, NALC 2 stewards said management’s behavior is the reason why the union decided to take action and call for a protest to rally their members, supporters and the media.

Postal Workers in Milwaukee were eager to rally behind the union’s demands and were joined by many supporters, including Milwaukee Area Labor Council President Pam Fendt, Wisconsin State Representative Ryan Clancy, ATU Local 998 President Donnell Shorter, and the Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.

#MilwaukeeWI #NALC #USPS #Feature

Milwaukee, WI – The United States Postal Service (USPS) is in a state of crisis. Nearly 15 years ago, Congress forced the Postal Service into financial ruin through a mandate to pre-fund retiree benefits for 80 years in advance. Since 2013, this pre-funding mandate has accounted for 100% of losses. The mandate has been kept alive in spite of an independent audit which proved that for decades, the federal government had been using a flawed accounting method which caused USPS to overpay into federal pension systems by roughly $86 billion. No other company or government entity is forced to do this and the impulse behind it is clear- break the postal service, weaken postal unions, and sell off profitable parts of USPS.

While USPS was able self-fund through postage revenue up until now, the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic is proving to be more than a weakened USPS can handle. While parcel volume has risen considerably, the volume in letter mail has plummeted. Current estimates are that letter mail volume is down 30% and it’s expected to drop as low as 50% by summer.

Costs are expected to skyrocket as an increasing number of workers have to enter quarantine periods or worse. This creates a situation where if there is no immediate intervention, there will be no funds to put gasoline in the vehicles, pay utility bills, or send out pay checks. Trump is taking advantage of this crisis by intervening to deny USPS any stimulus funds in order to push an anti-worker privatization agenda. In fact, Trump has placed extreme reforms as a demand for USPS to even get a loan! Meanwhile, private industries are receiving untold sums of money with absolutely no strings attached and no obligation to repay.

Postal union activists are now in a position where they have to both fight for the survival of a public service, but also for the survival of their membership. So far, over 9000 postal workers have been under quarantine and over 40 postal workers have died from COVID-19. While the union leaders at the national level have been negotiating new procedures, leave categories, and protective measures to be implemented nation-wide, the rank-and-file membership has been organizing to fight back both to win victories against postal management and to put pressure on lawmakers to provide the necessary relief to keep postal employees working and safe.

A coworker.org petition calling for appropriate safety equipment, hazard pay and special leave provisions quickly got over 88,000 signatures. Using existing networks, as well as contacts from the petition who wanted to get involved, a COVID-19 response Facebook page for postal workers formed and grew to 20,000 members. Union members have used the platform to share information about how to report unsafe conditions and how to file winning grievances. Additionally, workers have discussed tactics such as getting everyone at their shop to agree to let their coworkers know if they are diagnosed. With this knowledge, other workers can then choose to enter into a self-quarantine without having to wait to be informed weeks after the fact that they had been exposed.

Beyond the day-to-day union work, organizers also used the page as a means to promote small actions around Workers Memorial Day. In Seattle, a socially-distanced rally took place in front of a postal facility along a busy road. In Portland, a small gathering of postal workers, clergy and community members came together to memorialize the postal employees who have died from the virus. In Des Moines, postal workers put up crosses to memorialize their brothers and sisters who have died from the virus. There was a gathering of workers, and the local news media gave time to these workers to promote their case. In Milwaukee, a statue honoring the founding of the letter carrier’s union was turned into a temporary display to raise awareness of both the health crisis and the financial crisis facing the postal service. The statues of carriers were given masks and yard signs were placed along a busy road reading “At USPS 40+ dead. 9000 quarantined,” “Protect our essential Postal Workers,” and “Stimulus now! Save lives! Save USPS!”

We know that the working class in this country rarely gets anything without a fight. For postal workers to win, these local protests will have to go national in scale. The fightback will have to be a significant display of power and preparedness to do whatever it takes to preserve their lives and their livelihoods. To achieve this, postal workers will have to get the national union leaders to prepare for coordinated, nationwide actions in unity and coordination with the other postal unions.

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #postalService #USPS #laborStruggle #SaveUSPS

Tampa, FL – Over 50 U.S. Postal Service workers and supporters participated in the national day of action here in Tampa, May 14. On May 20, the USPS union members' contract is set to expire. If the contract passes as is, American Postal Workers Union (APWU) members fear it will include more cuts to employee positions and take the only public postal service in the country and hand it to the private corporations.

Reggie Maddox a Tampa resident and USPS worker for over 18 years brought his two sons to the rally. “Our service is here for the people. This is the only postal service that doesn't demand a tax break. My job is threatening to be cut. And I just cannot sit back and accept that.”

According to Don Barron, executive vice president of the Tampa Area Local South Region, “Attacks to USPS are attacks to more than 550,000 employees who are set to be without a job by this Oct. 1. If the contract passes as-is, the APWU will push for arbitration.”

Organizing in two locations, the Tampa Local 259 APWU first rallied outside of the downtown Tampa Postal Office and then, after more than five hours, moved the rally to the Tampa International Postal Office. Workers at the local office joined the rally during their lunch breaks and some even joined before their work shifts.

Joji Wong, a USPS worker for more than 21 years, is a graveyard shift employee and was set to start her shift at 2:00 a.m. Holding a “I stand with postal workers,” sign and talking to USPS customers, Wong said “I'm here because the Postal Service is one of the greatest public services out there. To see the attacks against it and the big efforts to make it private are something I will continue organizing against!”

David Bernstein, president of the APWU Retiree Chapter says, “When you take the services we provide and replace them with a privately-owned service, you end up handing us all over to Wall Street. In the many years I worked with the Postal Services, and the many strikes I have seen and been a part of, I can tell you now that the younger generation needs to fight back against these attacks. Just like I did and just like I still am, even if I am retired.”

Michael Sullivan the South East business agent for APWU; Norwood Orwick, a Verizon worker and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); as well as Sol Márquez, a state of Florida employee and member of the local AFSCME 79 chapter, also in supported the national day of action.

#TampaFL #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #unions #PublicSectorUnions #postalWorkers #USPS

Jacksonville, FL – Dozens of union workers rallied outside of the Staples store on Beach Boulevard here to oppose the proposed privatization of key United States Postal Service (USPS) jobs.

The protest was part of a nationwide day of action on April 24, called by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the Mail Handlers Union, and National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) supported it. Rallies, pickets and protests took place across the country at 50 locations in 27 states and drew out hundreds of workers, according to the APWU.

The Jacksonville protest drew a sizable crowd from all four of the major unions that represent workers at the USPS. Several members of Teamsters Local 512 who work at UPS also came out to show their solidarity as fellow package handlers.

“It's important because the Postal Service employs a lot of workers,” said Doris Orr-Richardson, President of the APWU 7041 in Jacksonville. She said of the Staples move: “It's a back door way to privatization by hiring minimum wage workers to do skilled labor. Each and every postal worker has to sign a ‘sanctity of the mail’ affidavit. Staples workers are told, ‘Here is the product, sell it.’”

Waving signs that read, “Stop Staples,” and “U.S. mail, not for sale,” the protesters received honks and cheers of support from passing cars.

Early in the rally, a Staples manager came outside to watch the protesters and photograph the event.

The privatized outsourcing of major USPS functions to Staples is the latest in a long series of attacks by major corporations and monopoly banks on the publicly-owned postal service. Congressmembers and Senators from both the Republicans and the Democrats have pushed harmful legislation that puts undue financial burdens on the post office in order to make it fail. In 2006, a bipartisan Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which forced the USPS into a 75-year liability for retirement benefits. Although the Post Office is an incredibly efficient operation, this requirement has USPS overfunding retirement by paying for postal workers who have not even been born. No other federal agency is expected to fund their retirement plans 75 years in advance.

The USPS administration handled this artificial crisis predictably by cutting over 200,000 postal jobs, closing down mail distribution centers and local post offices, and now contracting work out to non-union employers like Staples. The American Postal Workers Union is demanding that these new Staples mail centers be staffed with union postal workers and not minimum-wage retail workers.

Earlier in 2014, International APWU President Mark Dimondstein announced a nationwide alliance between the APWU, the NALC, the Mail Handlers Union, and NRLCA. The focus of this historic unity between the four postal unions is to reverse cuts made to the USPS service, resist privatization attempts like Staples and work with the people to better the post office for workers and customers.

#JacksonvilleFL #privatization #Capitalism #USPS #workersRights #AmericanPostalWorkersUnion

The story asserted that “decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers” had brought the Postal Service to the point of defaulting on a $5.5 billion payment due Sept. 30, and possibly shutting down entirely this winter.

The Times detailed the drastic cuts proposed by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe: No more Saturday delivery, closure of 3700 post offices and 300 sorting facilities nationwide, elimination of 220,000 jobs. Most of these moves require Congressional approval and the threatened shutdown was clearly supposed to help Congress make up its mind.

What wasn’t mentioned in the article: The $5.5 billion payment in question is part of a bizarre requirement imposed upon the USPS by Congress five years ago to prefund its retiree health benefits 75 years in advance over a ten-year period. In effect, the Postal Service is paying for the retirement of workers who haven’t even been born yet, let alone hired. Imagine the outcry if the feds made similar demands on private businesses!

Also unmentioned by the Times: Donahoe’s announcement came just as the post office was scheduled to enter contract negotiations with the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Forking over those annual $5.5 billion payments has cost the USPS $20 billion in operating losses over the past four years. Without them, the Postal Service would still be in the black, despite a big falloff in mail volume when the economy went south three years ago.

If Congress was serious about preventing the drastic service cutbacks Donahoe has proposed, there’s an obvious solution: End the prefunding requirement.

For those who hope to strip postal workers of their union rights, however, the prospect of a default presents a golden opportunity.

Representative Darrell Issa is the chair of the House Committee on Government Operations. Strictly speaking, the USPS is not a government operation and it receives no federal funds. Still, Issa’s committee is charged with overseeing it.

As a young man, according to a January profile in the New Yorker, Issa was busted twice for auto theft . Both times he managed to escape prosecution. Today he is the richest member of the House, having made a fortune in the car alarm business.

Issa has proposed a bill that would require the Postal Service to cut its expenses by $3 billion a year. If it failed to do so, its affairs would be put in the hands of a politically appointed commission with the power to scrap its collective bargaining agreements and slash wages and benefits.

I don’t know that the Postmaster General wants Issa’s bill to pass. I do know that he’s employing the same strategy. He’s using an essentially manufactured crisis to apply the screws to his work force.

To an alarming extent, the media is buying the story. The New York Times makes an issue of the fact that labor costs account for 80% of USPS expenses, “compared with 53% at United Parcel Service and 32% at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors.”

It’s a meaningless comparison. Neither FedEx nor UPS is charged with maintaining a universal service network, a task that requires human labor. When its customers need to ship to a location it doesn’t handle, UPS typically contracts with the Postal Service for “last mile” delivery. Unlike FedEx, the Postal Service does not sink a big chunk of its revenues into maintaining its own fleet of planes. It does not spend millions lobbying Congress, investing in other businesses or paying off stockholders. Whatever money it makes is ploughed back into operations.

And, for what it’s worth, there’s no significant difference in pay and benefits between the Postal Service and UPS, whose drivers are under Teamster contract. Despite a 30-year-old no-layoff clause in its union contracts, the USPS has managed to reduce its work force by nearly 30% in the past ten years. In my district, there’s a hiring freeze which has left some offices so understaffed that veteran carriers are routinely required to work 60-hour weeks.

Retiring workers are not replaced – or if they are, it’s with ‘transitional employees’ who enjoy rudimentary union protection but have no benefits, job security, seniority or bidding rights. Supposedly hired as a temporary expedient when the post office was introducing new mail sorting machinery, the “TEs” have emerged as a permanent feature of the postal work force and spend years vainly waiting for promotion to career status. They can be laid off at any time.

In the private sector, ‘downsizing’ is considered good business strategy, and ‘leaner, meaner’ companies are the ones that attract investors. Typically, what’s involved is the shift of capital from productive parts of the economy to the financial sector, where few workers are employed but the profit margins are enormous – or used to be, before the Wall Street meltdown of fall 2008.

The social costs of business downsizing are enormous, but there’s a certain crazy logic to it: under capitalism, businesses exist to make money. But downsizing the Postal Service makes no sense at all. For all the politicians’ prattle about the USPS needing a new “business model,” the post office isn’t really a business. It’s a public service, mandated by the U.S. Constitution. It reaches every household and business address in the country; its universal service network, built up over two centuries, is as much a part of the nation’s infrastructure as our interstate highways or public schools.

But its workers are unionized, so it’s fair game. Just as our public schools are being crippled as scarce tax dollars are diverted into corporate-run, non-union charter schools, reactionary forces in Congress are hell-bent on compromising the nation’s mail service beyond repair as the necessary price of busting the postal unions. In the process, the public is being robbed of a vital public service, and the right of all workers to union protection is further undermined.

Sept. 30 is the deadline for the USPS to make the $5.5 billion payment Congress demands. On Sept. 27, the four postal unions will be demonstrating at local Congressional offices across the country in an effort to get the truth out. Go to saveamericaspostalservice.org to find out where the demonstration in your area will be happening. Then come out and join it – to keep the mail moving and to stand with the brothers and sisters who move it.

Peter Shapiro is a retired member of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82 and is active in Jobs with Justice.

#UnitedStates #UPS #LaborDay #unionBusting #postOffice #postalService #RepresentativeDarrellIssa #PostmasterGeneralPatrickDonahoe #FedEx #USPS #NationalAssociationOfLetterCarriersBranch82 #JobsWithJustice