You Are Under Attack

APWU President Cliff Guffey got the attention of delegates to the National Editors’ Conference when he told us, “You are under attack”. Speaking at the opening session of the Postal Press Association’s Editors’ Conference on Thursday, August 11, he added this dire warning: “and we are ill-prepared for the fight”. He emphasized the need for action is immediate. Congress must take positive action when they return in September because the Postal Service is literally broke.

Mr. Guffey said Postal Employees were under attack by the same forces that are aligned against state public workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Florida. He said our immediate concern was H. R. 2309, a bill introduced by Rep. Darrel Issa, which according to the Center for American Progress has a hidden agenda of eliminating collective bargaining for postal employees.

Throughout his presentation Mr. Guffey stressed both the magnitude of the battle and the urgent need of individual employees to stand up and fight back by establishing a presence in the field with their congressional representatives. He said when he tries to talk to members of Congress they are telling him, “your people do not have a presence in the field”, and he urged everyone to visit their members of Congress during the August recess period and ask our members of Congress to co-sponsor and support H. R. 1351 as the best answer to the Postal Service’s financial problems.

He re-iterated that the Postal Service’s financial problems are mainly caused by the requirement to pre-fund future retiree health care benefits and that absent this pre-funding burden, the Postal Service would have enjoyed a surplus of $611 million in Fiscal Years 2007 through 2010, despite declining mail volume, and economy in chaos, and electronic diversion.

President Guffey told the delegates the national ad campaign that emphasized the Postal Service does not take any tax dollars has been a success in the goal of educating the public about the finances of the Postal Service, and he asked us to keep shining light on this positive message.