Activists Picket in Support of Post Office News and Record By Joe Killian, Staff Writer Holiday crowds mailing last minute gifts at the Murrow Boulevard post office Tuesday (Dec. 20) were greeted by picket signs and fliers urging them to remember the importance of the U.S. Postal Service. About 20 activists asked postal customers to educate themselves about moves to drastically cut postal service and pressure to privatize it completely. "Right now there's a blatant fraud being carried out against the postal service on behalf of Wall Street," said Richard Koritz, a retired postal worker from Greensboro and member of the National Association of Letter carriers. Koritz said it's true that the postal service, like so many industries, is facing challenges from technology like email and automation. But those are long-term problems, he said. "There is no short-term crisis for the postal service," Koritz said. "Congress created this phony crisis with the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which forced the postal service to pre-pay billions toward future retirement medical costs. There's no other business or even other government agency that has to do that." As a result of that mandate, the postal service has to fund 75 years worth of liability in the next 10 years, costing it more than $5 billion a year. Without the mandated prepayment, Koritz said, the postal service would still be very profitable. He also cited $70 billion in overpayment to retirement plans the federal government has yet to release back to the postal service--an issue more than 200 members of the U.S. House of Representatives want to resolve through H.R. 1351. That legislation, co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Mel Watt, D-12th of Charlotte, and Brad Miller, D-13th of Greensboro, would release the overpayments, allowing the service to apply that money toward future retirement health benefits. Also picketing were members of Occupy Greensboro and the North Carolina Communications Workers of America Local 3607. Chris Myrick, executive vice president of the local CWA chapter, said he came out to speak up for the good working-class postal jobs. He also said cuts to the affordable postage services offset by the USPS will hurt the poor and elderly disproportionately. Marsha Cogden, 56, came to the Murrow Boulevard post office Tuesday to mail holiday cards she hadn't gotten around to sending. She said she depends on the post office to be able to send mail to grandchildren in Oregon and California for the price of a 44-cent stamp. "I remember when the stamps were much less than that, even," she said. "But it's still a remarkable thing, when you think about it. It's something they don't have in every country in the world. I do think it's worth fighting to keep it."

Postal Allegations Made: Congressman Asks NLRB to Investigate By Rochelle Moore The Wilson Times U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield is asking the National Labor Relations Board to investigate allegations of harassment involving a former Wilson supervisor of the U.S. Postal Service. Butterfield, in an Aug. 3 letter to the NLRB chairman, asked that the allegations, which include 10 formal complaints about Cinder Isreal from postal workers at various post offices in eastern North Carolina, be investigated and acted upon if found true. “I write regarding the very serious allegations of misconduct by Ms. Cinder Isreal, a supervisor with the United States Postal Service,” Butterfield wrote. “I am very concerned about the safety, security and welfare of the postal workers who feel they have been mistreated and discriminated against by Ms. IsreaL. Allegations of harassment and misconduct in the workplace is a very serious matter that cannot be tolerated.” Butterfield asked the chairman to remedy the situation and provide information on how the allegations were handled. Isreal is a customer service supervisor assigned to the Wilson Post Office and is currently working at the Washington, NC Post Office, said Monica Robbs, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in North Carolina. Butterfield’s office received copies of 10 NLRB complaints and a petition signed by 39 Washington postal workers the week of July 18, said Tonya Williams, chief of staff of the Office of Congressman G.K. Butterfield, in Washington, D.C. The petition makes reference to Isreal being sent to Washington and the Washington postal supervisor, Neal Justice, being sent to Wilson. In the petition, the employees ask that Justice return and remain their supervisor. The petitionThe petition was also sent to several U.S. Post Office officials. “There is a situation stemming from issues with supervisors in the Wilson, North Carolina Post Office,” the petition states. “Rather than holding these supervisors accountable for their actions, the solution was to ‘swap’ one of the supervisors, Cinder Isreal, with the supervisor from the Washington, North Carolina Post Office, Neal Justice. “Therefore, we the undersigned employees of the Washington, North Carolina Post Office do hereby submit this petition to keep Neal Justice as our supervisor.” Wilson postal workers have also signed a petition that includes concerns about working conditions involving Isreal as well as Wilson’s postmaster, Alisa Bassa. The March 27 petition was signed by 23 postal workers in Wilson. “Between the two of them, someone in this office is harassed on a daily basis,” the petition claims. Bassa was assigned as Wilson’s postmaster in July 2010. She took the role as officer-in-charge in Rocky Mount May 25, 2011. Beverly Marriott, Rocky Mount’s postmaster, is Wilson’s acting postmaster.

Debt Deal Ultimately Could Harm Federal Workers NALC Legislation and Political Action The agreement to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, signed into law on Tuesday (August 2) by President Obama, authorizes a two-stage, $2.1 trillion rise to the nation’s debt ceiling that’s balanced with about $2.5 trillion in spending cuts spread over the next decade. The cuts are achieved by capping spending in defense and non-defense agencies. The first round of cuts does not directly affect letter carrier pensions and health benefits, but cuts could result in furloughs, hiring freezes and layoffs at other government agencies. The specifics of these cuts will be determined during the congressional budget process. The second round of cuts will be negotiated by a bipartisan House-Senate select committee tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in savings over the next 10 years. The legislation does not shed-light on where these savings will come from. However, rumors have been circulating on Capitol Hill that some of the proposals the committee may adopt could directly affect all federal employees, including letter carriers (emphasis added).

Koch Group’s Philosophy: If You Can’t Win, Then Cheat NALC Legislation and Political Action  Voters have been frustrated enough that the billionaire Koch brothers are funneling millions in undisclosed money into states like Wisconsin to secretly influence elections, and now they have reason to be downright angry  after reports that suspicious mailers from the same group are reminding solid-Democratic voters to send in an absentee ballot application by Aug. 11—two days after the recall elections. Democrats in two of the Republican-held districts, where seats are being challenged and a vote has been set for Aug. 9, are known to have received the mailing. Americans For Prosperity (AFP), the Koch-run group, asked these Democratic voters to submit their absentee ballot applications by mail to “Absentee Ballot Application Processing Center, P.O. Box 1327, Madison WI 53701-1327,” which sounds remarkably official for a non-governmental organization run by two multi-billionaire Republicans. This abhorrent tactic is not the first trick up the anti-worker groups’ sleeves since the recall campaigns heated up.  During the Democratic primary elections, Republican operatives unethically conspired to interfere with the Democratic Party’s internal affairs by placing Republican spoilers on the Democratic primary ballots in an attempt to rig the nomination process in their favor. Further, reports have linked several other mysterious mailers to the Madison address listed in the misleading AFP mailer. According to Talking Points Memo, “Wisconsin Right To Life previously used the same address for absentee ballot application letters and phone calls that were sent out shortly before the July 12 Democratic primaries, but after the official deadlines for the applications.” TPM also discovered the address did not belong to any sort of government office, but was instead linked to a conservative group, Wisconsin Family Action. Any intentional and calculated attempt to confuse, mislead or suppress votes is not only illegal, it’s one of the most egregious campaign tactics frequently used by campaigns in a last-ditch effort to cheat their way to victory.

ALEC Brings Together Legislators and Multinational Corporations For a Common Cause NALC Legislation and Political Action  The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a cooperative effort to bring state legislative leaders and large multinational corporations together to promote lower taxes, decreased regulation and increased legal protection for large companies. ALEC’s influence can be seen in health care, education, voter identification and anti-union laws passed this year. Legislators and businesses that join ALEC sit together on committees where they examine issues and draft “model bills” to be used as templates for state legislatures. Because each committee is made up of equal parts business and elected officials, both sides have equal say and veto power in the production of model bills. Model bills created by ALEC and its members have been introduced in state legislatures all across the country. While not all ALEC model bills are introduced verbatim, the nucleus of each bill tends to remain the same and therefore provides governors and legislators (usually Republicans) with a simple, national message. Having picked up 680 seats during the 2010 election, Republicans now control more state legislative seats than at any time since President Hebert Hoover’s election in 1928. ALEC now has unprecedented influence and its work can be seen in the business and labor laws that have been passed through state legislatures this year. To read more, click here: How ALEC Shapes States' Legislation Behind The Scenes : NPR (Cartoon: http://my.ilstu.edu/~egmurre/cartoon.htm)

Issa Follows in Footsteps of Republican Governors, Attacks Workers’ Rights NALC Legislation and Political Action Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) postal reform legislation is just another example of elected officials' attempts to bust unions and curb collective bargaining rights. David Madland and Zane Farr at the Center for American Progress cite similarities between Issa’s proposal and a law written by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder created and empowered “emergency” managers to monitor budgets and to step in to take action whenever shortfalls arise. The emergency managers in Michigan have the power to unilaterally alter collectively bargained agreements. Issa has proposed the creation of a solvency authority that would have the power to “reject, modify or terminate one or more terms and conditions of an existing collective bargaining agreement.” If Issa sought real solutions to the financial issues facing the USPS, he would have addressed its financial issues instead of writing a bill that does little more than attack the rights of postal employees. Congressional oversight instituted the onerous schedule under which the Postal Service was required to aggressively pre-fund 75 years' worth of retiree health benefits in just 10 years. Issa makes no mention of fixing the pre-funding schedule nor of returning the tens of billions overpaid by the Postal Service into its retirement fund accounts. He has done little more than propose that Congress further shackle the USPS by imposing on it his partisan political agenda. Madland and Zarr aptly conclude, “Rep. Issa’s targeting of postal employees shows that the war on workers’ rights is not just in state capitols but is also at the post office.... The Postal Service needs real reform and not political maneuvering from the right-wing playbook.” To read the full article, click here: There’s Hidden Union Busting in Congressman Issa’s Postal Reform Bill

ISSA TO POSTAL UNION: STOP MISLEADING ADS ON POSTAL SERVICE Press Release from Rep. Darrell Issa WASHINGTON- Congressman Darrell Issa in a letter to the American Postal Worker Union (APWU) on July 11 asks the union to cancel a misleading ad campaign that falsely claims the United States Postal Service (USPS) does not receive taxpayer support when it does, in fact, receive hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money through preferential tax treatment and other benefits. "A December 2007 report from the Federal Trade Commission includes a long list of implicit subsidies the Postal Service receives that are not available to private companies," said Issa in the letter to APWU President Cliff Guffey. The letter notes that "the Postal Service is exempt from, among other items, federal, state, and local income tax, all state and local taxes (including property tax), and vehicle registration and titling fees." The letter also notes that USPS has access to borrowing directly from the United States Treasury at very low rates. As of the end of Fiscal Year 2010, the Postal Service had $4.1 billion in debt with an interest rate below 0.3% as well as an additional short-term revolving credit line of $3.4 billion at an interest rate of 0.206%. Noting that these subsidies are worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, Issa asked the union not to mislead the American people. "While you and I have significant differences of opinion on how the Postal Service should be reformed, I believe we must be clear about the underlying facts. I ask you not to engage in a campaign to mislead the American people." Issa, the author of the only legislation introduced this Congress which would return the Postal Service to solvency, has also called on the Postal Service and their allies to recognize that the decline in revenue is permanent, driven by the transition to electronic, paperless technology and not temporarily by the recession. Issa debunked these myths and others in a "Myth vs. Fact" paper published last week. Click here  for a copy of Issa's letter to APWU.