Thursday, May 31, 2012

President's Message

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the trust you have placed in me to represent you. It is my goal to use the Contract to defend your rights. We need to hold Management accountable. There are 3 simple steps that can help us avoid problems with Management; Be here at work every day, Be productive by doing our job and Be safe by being careful in all that we do. Your Union leadership has been challenged with 3 additional steps; Connect with our members by realizing that we are the same as you, Respect our members by showing appreciation for who you are and what you do and Protect our members by using the Contract to defend your rights. Help us do our part by doing your part. We aim to be transparent in what we do and allow you a voice in your Union. We are fully staffed and qualified with years of Contract negotiation experience. We are ready willing and able to represent you and defend the Contract . Please let us know when you need our help.

As you all know we are engaged in a battle to keep the Postal Service alive. Congress is where the Union is focusing its efforts to stop consolidation. We are asking Congress to save our service standards. If our standards are saved Network Optimization and plant consolidations won’t happen and 32,000 postal workers keep their jobs. We are asking Congress to give us relief on our future retiree health insurance payments.

We are in this fight together. The Postal Service’s financial crisis has been building for years, and we continue to face an uphill battle. We are asking for a call to arms of you and everyone you know to contact Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Jason Chaffetz. Tell them to pass legislation that will resolve the financial crisis and strengthen the Postal Service, not dismantle it. We need to emphasize the following points:

•Provide adequate relief from the retiree healthcare prefunding requirement.
•Set strict standards. (The Postal Service is planning to degrade delivery standards in order to eliminate more than half of all mail processing facilities.)
•Allow the USPS to recover overpayments the Postal Service made to its retiree pension funds.
•Establish new ways to generate revenue, such as providing notary services, issuing licenses, contracting with state and local agencies to provide services, and allowing the USPS to offer services that mail systems in many other countries provide, such as digital services.
•Prevent the closing of small post offices by giving the Postal Regulatory Commission binding authority to prevent closures based on the effect on the community and employees.
•Protect six day delivery.
•Eliminate the provision that would drastically reduce the compensation of workers who are injured on duty once they reach retirement age.
•Repeal the provision that would require arbitrators in postal contract negotiations to consider the financial health of the USPS. (This requirement is an attempt to skew contract negotiations in favor of management.)

We need all of you to participate and help “Save our Service!”

Call the Capitol switchboard at 888-863-6103 or 202-224-3121

Or send an e-mail message via www.capwiz.com/apwu/home

I hope you will feel the need to take action on the information we shared and begin to look at what the future may hold for you and your job at the Postal Service. The future may not look perfect, but together we can make the future look bright.

Thanks for your support,
Nick Webb