MHV04-02

As many of you know, I have been writing about privatization efforts that the Postal Service has been engaged in for many yrs. You may recall my article titled The Seeds Of Privatization Parts I and Part II. I also wrote an article titled Backdoor Privatization.

The essence of these articles concerned the various discounts and incentives that the Postal Service is offering big mailers to presort their mail. These efforts are now bearing their poisonous fruits, much to the dismay of Postal Workers who work in the many Processing and Distribution plants and Bulk Mail Centers.

In the larger plants such as the BMC Mail Centers and the big P&D plants we are seeing more and more presorted mail. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of presorted direct pallets. This mail is no longer processed by postal workers. It is now done by the booming presort industry. Where the workers are not unionized and are paid much lower wages then we postal workers.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY THE VOLUME OF THIRD CLASS MAIL, HAS SURPASSED THE VOLUME OF FIRST CLASS MAIL.THE RESULT IS A DRAMATIC DROP IN POSTAL REVENUE.

WHAT’S AMAZING, IS THAT SENIOR POSTAL OFFICIALS SEEM SHOCKED BY THIS DEVELOPMENT. THEY SHOULDN’T BE, THEY PLANNED FOR IT WITH THEIR PRESORT INCENTIVES. PERHAPS THEY WERE SHOCKED BECAUSE IT WAS THE ONLY PLAN THEY EVER PUT FORTH THAT ACTUALLY SUCCEEDED!

Now the Postmaster General has announced his new transformation plan. In this plan he stated that there is a need to consolidate facilities and possibly close some of our P&D Centers. Surprised? I’m not, this is what they have been planning for years. Their intention is to get out of the processing and distribution business. Their vision

is to have as much mail processed at the presort plants as possible. Thus justifying, the need to reduce postal clerk and mail handler staffing. Why do you think they offered a special discount for mailers who presort their mailing, down to the carrier routes! I have been saying this for years. But for some odd reason our national unions have not realized this until this year when the national APWU, for the first time challenged the most recent, presort discount proposals.

Just a few years ago the trucks going to other BMC’s at the NJI-BMC had maybe three or four direct pallets on them. Today every truck contains as much as 40% or 50% direct pallets! This is mail that was, just a few years ago processed and sorted by postal workers today it is being done at the presort houses.

This not only hurts us in the fact that fewer postal workers are needed, but as we seen in the recent APWU National Arbitration. When the APWU, attempted to raise the argument, that the clerks wages, should be compared to those of the Federal Express and UPS employees. The arbitrator quickly shot that argument down and stated that they should be compared to the non-union workers in the presort industry. When he compared our wages to theirs he stated that we enjoyed a 30% wage premium. So this is another seed planted by the postal service that has produced poisonous fruit for us postal workers.

Now this may sound like more bad news and it is! I think that by now all of you who work on the floor will have to agree that what I’m saying is true and accurate. As an elected representative, my job is not to just react to events that happen on a daily basis but to have the foresight to look down the road and see what threats are headed our way. I have been doing that, for many years now and I had hoped that our Local and National Leadership would have taken heed. I tried to do my job by sounding the alarm. Now we are at the point where the seeds that I said were being planted have blossomed into poisonous fruit that now threatens our jobs in a way that we have never experienced before.

A man worked in a post office. His job was to process all mail that had
illegible addresses. One day a letter came to his desk, addressed in a shaky
handwriting to God. He thought, "I better open this one and see what it's
all about."

So he opened it and it read, "Dear God, I am an 83 year old widow living on a
very small pension."

"Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had a hundred dollars in it which was
all the money I had until my next pension check."

"Next Sunday is Easter, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner.
Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with."

"I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help
me?"

The postal worker was touched, and went around showing the letter to all the
others. Each of them dug into his wallet and came up with a few dollars. By
the time he made the rounds, he had collected 96 dollars, which they put into
an envelope and sent over to her. The rest of the day, all the workers felt
a warm glow thinking of the nice thing they had done.

Easter came and went, and a few days later came another letter from the old
lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened.

It read, "Dear God, How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me?"
"Because of your generosity, I was able to fix a lovely dinner for my
friends. We had a very nice day, and I told my friends of your wonderful
gift."

"By the way, there was 4 dollars missing. It was no doubt those thieving
bastards at the post office."

As a member of this Union, it is annoying to hear that some Mail Handlers do not pay dues.

Some of them are very big on quoting the Local Agreement, which the Branch Union negotiated for them, but they don’t pay their dues!

Some of them are the first to yell “hey, I’m senior”. Without a Union to negotiate a contract there wouldn’t be a seniority list, but still they pay no dues!

Some of them enjoy the overtime they work which is due to the Union’s constant enforcement of the contract, but still they pay no dues!

Some of them are the first people to hound a Shop Steward when they are having problems, but still they pay no dues!

I can go on, but it just gets annoying. Hopefully, they won’t find out what would happen if there were no Union at all. So, I support my Union!

By paying my fair share! We all enjoy the benefits that the Union has negotiated

If you do not receive any mail from the Union, it might be because we don’t have your correct mailing address. If you recently moved or don’t receive any mail from the Union. Stop in the Union office and give us your correct address. We have an important election. You want to make sure you get your ballot so your voice can be heard.