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Union made autos
DATE: May 2nd, 2012
TIME: 6:30 PM Refreshments
7:00 PM Meeting
PLACE: Labor Temple 1819 Hymer Avenue, Sparks, Nevada 89431
AGENDA:
Overtime Mandating Update
National Convention
Unions Fight Back
S. 1789 Update
Regular Branch Monthly Meeting for June & July
Carrier Corps / E-Activist / COLCPE
CLC Report
Food Drive
Labor Management Meeting Report
LMOU Suggestions for Upcoming Negotiations
COME AND SUPPORT YOUR UNION!!
April 25, 2012 -- The United States Senate adopted a deeply flawed postal reform bill on Wednesday, voting for S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, by a vote of 62 to 37.
The legislation embraces a downsizing strategy and fails to fully lift the onerous burden to fund decades of future retiree health benefits decades in advance. If it were to become law, it would be almost impossible to save Saturday mail delivery for the American people and their businesses.
Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate had come to an agreement on how to proceed on the debate of S. 1789, the postal reform bill. After hours and hours of negotiations between the bill managers (Senators Lieberman, Collins, Carper and Brown) and their leadership, the senators emerged with an agreed upon list of amendments that will be considered when the bill is brought back to the Senate floor for debate on Monday.
The good news is that all three of the amendments the NALC was seeking were included in the agreement. Once again those amendments are:
New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall’s amendment to preserve six-day mail delivery (Amendment No. 2043)
Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka’s amendment to replace the detrimental workers’ compensation reform in S. 1789 with a bipartisan-passed House bill, H.R. 2465, that NALC supports (Amendment No. 2034)
New York Sen. Charles Schumer’s amendment to preserve home and business door delivery (Amendment No. 2050)
The bad news is that the agreement also included a 60-vote threshold on all amendments, including final passage. This is designed to significantly, if not entirely, limit the number of amendments that can be passed to change the legislation. We are very discouraged that a simple majority vote will not be enough to pass these critical amendments.
While we will continue to gather as much possible support as we can to reach the 60 votes needed on all three amendments, you must now clarify our position even further with your senators:
The NALC will oppose this legislation absent the inclusion of the three amendments listed above! Those NALC members who have provided the Postal Service with a current home phone number will receive a robocall tonight from me to provide details of an emergency telephone town hall meeting scheduled for Sunday evening at 8:30 p.m. EDT (one call nationwide).
Between now and then, please keep the pressure on all of your senators.
Call 1-888-863-6103 over the weekend. Time is of the essence!
In Solidarity,
Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers
Our National Legislative Department has just learned which amendments that will be offered to protect our crucial issues not originally contained in S 1789. Please follow the request in this e-activist and call Senator Reid and Senator Heller immediately.
Please call each of them at their DC office first using the NALC number 1-888-863-6103 (it seems the NALC number directs us to Heller's office-so the second call--I have provided the DC numbers)
Sen. Reid at 202-224-3542
Sen. Heller 202-224-6244
. Then also call their local office located closest to you::
Senator Reid
Reno: 775 686-5750
Carson City 775-882-7343
Senator Heller:
Reno 775-686-5770
Carson City 775-885-9111
Get your friends and family to call as well. Calls need to be made ASAP, vote on the amendments can come as early as tomorrow.
Yesterday, the Senate voted to begin debate on S. 1789. As of today, the leadership in the Senate was still working out a strategy to amend the bill in a way that would satisfy both Democrats and Republicans. If an agreement can be reached, the manager’s amendment (also referred to as the substitute amendment) will be offered first and introduced. If it’s approved, it will become the new base bill to be debated in the Senate.
As we have reported, the NALC opposes the manager’s amendment and therefore will seek significant changes to the legislation. In preparation for the debate on the amendments scheduled for tomorrow, I need you to pick up the phone and call your senators to ensure necessary improvements are made to S.1789.
Call your senators at 1-888-863-6103 and urge them to support these changes to S. 1789:
1.New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall’s amendment to preserve six-day mail delivery (Amendment No. 2043)
2.Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka’s amendment to replace the detrimental workers’ compensation language with language from a bipartisan-passed House bill, H.R. 2465 (Amendment No. 2034)
3.New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand’s amendment to preserve home and business door delivery (Amendment No. 2050)
Congress needs to pass a bill that allows USPS to thrive in the 21st century while maintaining essential, affordable and reliable service for the American people. Please continue to check nalc.org as debate on S. 1789 continues this week. Thank you for taking the time to call your senators and urge them to reform S. 1789. In Solidarity, Fredric V. Rolando, President National Association of Letter Carriers
Dear Union Brothers and Sisters,
S. 1789 does not ensure a viable USPS for the future. An amended version of S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act -- which the NALC has not yet seen -- is headed to the floor of the Senate next week. The expectation, based on what we know, is that the proposed amendments do not go far enough to address the major problems with this deeply flawed legislation. As a letter carrier and constituent, you are in a unique position to help stop this bill.
Call your senators and tell them to oppose S. 1789.
Click here to find your senators' Washington phone number:
contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Please call both of your senators and deliver the following message:
+ NALC continues to oppose S. 1789 as we have not seen a final draft of the amended version that the Senate will vote on next week. Based on what we know now, S. 1789 remains deeply flawed.
+ S. 1789 would jeopardize Saturday delivery in two years' time -- eliminating USPS's biggest competitive advantage as well as 80,000 jobs -- and it would mandate the phasing-out of door-to-door delivery for 35 million households and businesses.
+ If S. 1789 becomes law, jobs and quality service would be sacrificed to maintain a unique burden to pre-fund future retiree health benefits -- even as the bill fails to return our CSRS pension surplus of $50 billion to $75 billion.
+ And S. 1789 includes a punitive and regressive reform of the federal workers' compensation program
(Feel free to leave a message if you call after hours.) We want the Senate to pass legislation that will resolve the financial crisis and strengthen the Postal Service, not gradually dismantle it.
In Solidarity,
Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers National Association of Letter Carriers
Your action is needed on Capitol Hill. I am asking you to contact both Senator Reid & Heller to vote against S. 1789. This phone call should be completed over the weekend.
Please call a local number and the Washington D.C. number Please leave the following message; Please share this message with your friends and family. Senator _____________
Hi, my name is _____________, and I'm a Letter Carrier from _______________,I am asking you to vote against S.1789 when it comes up for a Cloture Vote.
S.1789 would end Saturday delivery, eliminate 100,000's of jobs, and end delivery to your door all the while failing to address the United States Postal Service true financial situation. Thank You
Please contact Senator Reid at the following numbers
Reno 775-686-5750 Carson City 775-882-7343 Washington, D.C. 202- 224-3542
Please contact Senator Heller at the following numbers
Reno 775-686-5770 Carson City 775-885-9111 Washington, DC 202-224-6244
Yours in Unionism
Clancy
by John Beaumont, National Association of Letter Carriers
On January 17, 1962, President John F Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988. This granted Federal Employees, for the first time, the right to collective bargaining. This action led to inspire many states and localities to follow suit, allowing their own workers to organize. This triggered a huge wave of unionization in the public sector that saw firefighters, teachers, janitors, social workers and many others form unions in the 1960s and '70s. Now all this is under attack. The nation's postal unions, whose employees combine to be the largest Federal union in the nation, are being attacked through proposed legislation in the United States Senate.
As early as next week, S. 1789, the so-called 21st Century Postal Service Act, is moving forward for a floor vote in the Senate. This bill, reported out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security by Senator Lieberman, would do the following:
Cuts mail delivery from six days a week down to five days in two years' time if the Postal Service is not turning a profit, but fails to give the Postal Service any flexibility to achieve that profit.
Phases out door-to-door delivery for consumers in favor of curbside and centralized delivery.
Includes an anti-labor provision that would direct arbitrators to take into special consideration the financial condition of the Postal Service before rendering a decision. A direct attack on collective bargaining.
Unfairly attacks injured postal workers by removing them from the OWCP rolls and forcing them into retirement without implementing a formula that would make these people whole. The reduction in compensation would be severe.
If Congress succeeds in this attack against the postal unions, it will shift its focus to the rest of the unionized federal workforce, including our newly certified brothers and sisters who are employed by TSA.
We need your help to stop this attack. Please call Senator Reid's office at (202) 224-3542 and Senator Heller's office at (202) 224-6244 and ask them both to oppose S. 1789 in its current form. The legislation is deeply flawed and needs significant changes before the Senate should consider passage of this bill.
Changes to the bill should include provisions from S. 1853, which actually does take the necessary steps by addressing the issues laid out above to strengthen the Postal Service while maintaining the excellent level of service Americans have come to expect, preserving middle-class jobs and creating new opportunities for the Postal Service moving forward.
We need everyone possible not to just call our Senators in Region 1 but also write them a letter as well. Letters written and mailed to our US Senators State District Offices will get there within a couple of days, plenty of time to get their attention if this comes up for a vote at the end of next week. It is fine to call their Capitol officers but please do not send any mail to DC since they delay the mail for screening by as much as 8 days, thank you.
I've attached a sample letter to use and send to Senators Reid and Heller. Below is a list of all our Senators local address. Also it is very important you get this out to as many members as possible using your own email addresses. At the begining of the year the E-Activist list was updated and a portion of the membership previous on the list in all three states were purged. We need to make sure every gets this alert. If you have any questions please give Clancey a call.
Nevada
Senator Harry Reid Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse & Federal Bldg 400 S. Virginia St, Suite 902 Reno, NV 89501 (202) 224-3542 Senator Dean Heller Bruce Thompson Federal Building, 400 South Virginia Street, Suite 738 Reno, NV 89501 (202) 224-6244
On Friday, Jan 20th, the USPS declined to extend collective-bargaining negotiations with the NALC, triggering an impasse that will automatically send the matter to mediation. “I am disappointed by the Postal Service’s decision,” NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said. “We have been making steady progress in negotiations. NALC continues to believe that a negotiated agreement is in the best interests of the parties, the businesses that rely on us and the nation we serve. We will continue to negotiate in good faith as mediation takes place.”
As the Senate reconvenes in Washington today, the NALC is closely monitoring expected Senate action for this and the coming weeks. With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announcing late last week that he would be delaying a floor vote for the controversial anti-piracy bills pending before Congress, the Senate schedule now has unexpected floor time that will need to be filled. All indications are that the leadership plans on moving S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2011, as early as next week. S. 1789, in its current form, is unacceptable to the NALC and to many stakeholders and customers throughout the country.
The bill as reported out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs fell short of achieving the many needed reforms to ensure a vibrant Postal Service for the future.
The legislation:
* Allows for five-day delivery in two years' time if the Postal Service is not turning a profit, but fails to give the Postal Service any flexibility to achieve that profit.
* Phases out door-to-door delivery in favor of curbside and centralized delivery.
* Fails to recoup the $55 billion to $75 billion in CSRS pension surplus funds.
* Does not go far enough in restructuring the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund.
* Includes an anti-labor provision that would direct arbitrators to take into special consideration the financial condition of the Postal Service before rendering a decision.
* Unfairly attacks injured postal workers by removing them from the OWCP rolls and forcing them into retirement without implementing a formula that would make these people whole. The reduction in compensation would be severe.
Please call Sen. Reid at (202) 224-3542 and ask him to oppose S. 1789 in its current form. The legislation is deeply flawed and needs significant changes before the Senate should consider passage of this bill.
Changes to the bill should include provisions from S. 1853, The Postal Service Protection Act of 2011. This bill takes the necessary steps by addressing the issues laid out above to strengthen the Postal Service while maintaining the excellent level of service Americans have come to expect, preserving middle-class jobs and creating new opportunities for the Postal Service moving forward.
Again, please call Sen. Reid as soon as possible and urge him to delay action on S. 1789 as drafted. We expect the Senate to pass legislation that protects senior citizens, rural communities, small businesses and others and we hope to be at the table as those discussions are held.
Thank you in advance for your urgent action.
In Solidarity,
Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers
(from federal times) The U.S. Postal Service used questionable data in its selection of more than 3,600 post offices to study for closure and should rethink its methods, an oversight body has concluded. Postal Regulatory Commission members are concerned that the mail carrier's approach does not "determine the facilities most likely to serve the greatest number, reduce the greatest costs, or enhance the potential for growth or stability in the system," PRC Chairman Ruth Goldway said in a news release accompanying the Dec. 23 release of the133-page opinion. In many cases, contract post offices and other means of "alternative access'' cannot make up for the loss of a full-service post office, the four-member PRC found in a unanimously issued advisory opinion. And while the Postal Service predicts that the proposed closings would save about $200 million annually, it could not provide revenue and expense information to back up that assertion to the commission's satisfaction. USPS officials in July unveiled a list of about 3,650 post offices — or about 11 percent of the total — that could be closed. Its goal was to wrap up a streamlined review by year's end.
With its downsizing plans under mounting fire on Capitol Hill, however, the Postal Service earlier this month announced a freeze on shuttering any post offices or mail processing plants until mid-May. Postal officials are reviewing the PRC opinion, spokesman Dave Partenheimer said Tuesday. About 80 percent of post offices lose money, according to the Postal Service; of the facilities on the review list, more than 3,000 yield less than $27,500 in yearly revenue, the agency has said. By law, the Postal Service must ask the commission to weigh in on any proposed service change with a nationwide impact. Although the newly released opinion is nonbinding, it furnishes ammunition to critics who say that a wave of post office closings would hurt service and disproportionately affect rural areas. The PRC's "unanimous findings support my and many of my colleagues' skepticism about the wisdom of mass postal closures without a more thoughtful, transparent and data-driven process," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a news release.
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