Postal Reform – your job prospects

by Kevin Gallagher, Associate Editor
101 Facts, Scranton, PA

Gene DelPolito, head of a mailers’ coalition, put out a positional statement the day after the Presidential election saying that it is time to commit to meaningful reform – that the current Postal Reform bills do not address the real problems of the Postal Service – that the Postal Reform bills need to be reworked into something the mailing industry wants – which is easily understood to mean increasing the massive postage discount program for presorted mail. Currently mailers can get up to 10 cents off the 1st Class postage for presorting, while processing that same letter in-house costs ˝ of a cent. They already get a 25 fold discount over and above the in-house costs of processing that letter, and they want more. But more presort discounts reduce the revenue the USPS gets and the Postal Service then claims employee wages and benefits are the cause of revenue declines. NAPUS (Mgt. Association of the USPS) put out a newsletter three days after the election claiming credit for reelecting the current President. They now caution their members to be watchful for a backlash from the White House towards the Postal Unions for not supporting the current President. They list possible effects of the backlash as impacts upon employee health and retirement benefits and wages and said “since Postmaster pay base is related to employee salaries, and Postmasters participate in the same health and retirement systems as do employees,” they are now concerned for their members.

Where was this concern when they were reelecting the President? On 11/8 the DM News – another coalition of mailers’ group, issued an editorial wherein they express concern that Postal Reform legislation may not be brought before Congress until next year but expressed optimism that the Mailers’ Council (another mailers’ coalition group) and the Direct Marketing Association (another mailers’ group) have stated they will be able to “work with the White House soon to see what changes it wants” in the Postal Reform legislation. The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers (yet another mailers’ group) has also sent letters to the House and Senate leadership urging quick action on the Postal Reform bill in order to keep postage rates unchanged through 2006 and beyond.

All these groups have begun political action – pushing what they want in Postal Reform bills – immediately after the November 2nd election. The political and public campaign to change the current Postal Reform bills is already high and will get much louder and stronger throughout the winter and spring. They want your wages, retirement, and health benefits reduced through Congressional legislation and they want bigger postage discounts for presorting mail. They also want to have the ability to open mailbox delivery to anyone so that they can establish their own processing and delivery system to completely bypass the USPS. In your corner – fighting for you – is only one group, your Union. And the opposition is large, well financed, and politically connected. Despite all of this, your Union will be fighting the fight of our lives – of YOUR lives - to protect you. ...if you are not a member – join the group that is the ONLY group fighting for you. If our Union loses this fight – we all lose.