Health Care or Health Scare? Postmaster General Pat Donahoe would like to have control over your health care. He says he can do a better job than the OPM-administered Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP). This from the same man who is currently lobbying Congress in an effort to lay off 200,000 employees, shutter over 3,000 post offices, consolidate mail processing plants across the country, eliminate Saturday delivery (and later, another day), and limit employees collective bargaining rights. He has your best interests at heart. He agrees that the Congressional mandate forcing the USPS to pay $5.5 billion a year to pre-fund future retiree medical costs for the next 75 years is wrong. He also agrees that the government owes the Postal Service around $70 billion from its over-funded retirement plans. But despite this, and the fact that it would have actually made $600 million in profit over the last four years had it not been for this, it’s just not enough. What he would like to do is remove all employees from the FEHBP and enroll them in one cobbled together by the Postal Service. It, he says, will do a much better job than OPM and save the agency millions of dollars. In a recent “State of the Business” video enjoyed by thousands of appreciative employees, Mr. Donahoe explained the plan this way: “This (plan to take over your health coverage) ties into the larger picture of what we’ve been talking about over the last several months (the aforementioned service cuts, etc.) regarding legislative change. The whole idea and aim is to secure a strong financial future for the organization, the industry, and for you as an employee.” That’s right, although Mr. Donahoe is committed to securing the financial future of the Postal Service and the mailing industry, he is also concerned about your welfare as well. He truly treasures you as a hard-working, loyal employee. As for the 200,000 workers he plans to lay off, not so much. But as for you, you he treasures. But there’s more. Again, Mr. Donahoe: “While all of us have been taking great steps to reduce our costs, the health care cost is one we’re unable to address in its current model. We need to change this.” You have been taking “great steps” to reduce costs haven’t you? In fact, you’ve been taking faster steps in an effort to carry your 10-hour route, plus part of another route, and be back in eight hours. You’re a real trooper. Finally, he says, “If we (that’s him and us together, a team) take over our own plan, cover 1 million people, employees and retirees (Wow, that’s everybody!), the experts tell us you can cut your costs by somewhere between 8 to 10 percent.” Although Mr. Donahoe fails to name these “experts,” one of them definitely isn’t Walt Francis. Mr. Francis is an independent consultant and author who is the leading expert on the FEHBP. For over 30 years he has been the principal author of the annual Checkbook’s “Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees.” Mr. Francis had this to say about the PMG’s health care plan: “(The Postal Service) will be less competent and less efficient than the Office of Personnel Management, by far, in trying to run their own insurance program. Anything they propose to do, if it will help them financially, will necessarily involve reducing benefits, reducing their share of premiums or playing some financial game like stripping reserves.” But Mr. Francis didn’t stop there. “Anyone who is expert in health insurance will recognize that it is nonsensical propaganda, written by someone who didn’t even know what he or she was talking about. This proposal is not about better health insurance, it is about finding ways to get money from someone, whether that be the public, the Treasury or the employees.” Ouch! Someone else who thinks the PMG’s health plan is screwy is Ron Ashkenas, senior partner at Schaffer Consulting in New York. In short, his firm helps organizations achieve their potential. He says of the Postal Service, “If you were an investor wouldn’t you want to look at the track record of the management team asking for money? The Postal Service has been notoriously slow in developing alternative business models, has allowed competitors to capture lucrative parts of its market, and has generally relied on pricing increases and service cuts to survive.” No, he’s definitely not a fan of the plan, or of postal management. Don’t be deceived by the “larger picture,” as Donahoe describes it. Yes, the plan may have as its goal a stronger financial future for a postal service, but it won’t in any way resemble the one now in existence. It will be a privatized postal service, a postal service that will be mandated by its owners to make big profits; not a few paltry million dollars but billions. We’re talking Fortune 500. Although the PMG may seem sincere in his video messages to the beleaguered troops down in the trenches, your financial wellbeing is not one of his priorities. His financial wellbeing, on the other hand, is. The plan (the scheme) now being advocated by the PMG and the brass in Washington, DC, is the same one being implemented by anti-worker lawmakers in Congress and in various governorships around the country. The plan is relatively simple, and simple-minded. Their plan for growing the economy and creating jobs is to cut, cut, and then cut some more. Patrick Donahoe’s plan is not only about cutting days of service, but it’s also about cutting full-time employees in favor of part-timers, it’s about cutting wages, cutting retirement benefits, cutting health care, cutting your right to collectively bargain, and cutting your union. This is the “larger picture” that PMG Donahoe has in mind for you and me. We must make sure that it’s a picture that never develops.

Postal Service Announces Possible Closing of 252 Mail Processing Plants But Promises No One Will Notice In its latest effort at imploding, the Postal Service announced on Thursday (September 15) that it will be "studying" 252 mail processing facilities around the country over the next three months with an eye towards closing and/or consolidating them in the not too distant future. There are currently 487 of these facilities. Because Postal Service officials in Washington aren't known to be "studious" and often take short-sighted short-cuts in attempting to find solutions to problems, the news was received with much concern. There are six such facilities in North Carolina: two in Fayetteville, two in Kinston, one in Rocky Mount and one in Asheville. Postal employees were treated to a standup talk and a video message from Postmaster General Pat Donahoe this week on why such a hair-brained move was necessary. In the standup talk the potential closings are referred to as "network changes," and (the one I particularly like) "network adjustments." But to put everyone at ease, postal officials are quick to add that the future closings and layoffs will only have "some impact" on commercial mailers but that individual customers aren't likely to notice any change at all. They say that these changes will be "seamless." For those who are familiar with the inner-workings of the Postal Service, you pretty much recognize this as a lie. A whopper. No one, I don't care how smart they are, can close hundreds of mail processing plants and post offices (approximately 3,700) and lay off several thousand employees, and it not be noticed. The mathematical whizzes in Washington estimate the closing of these facilities (before "studying" them) will save them $3 billion. That's in addition to the money that will be saved by closing nearly 4,000 post offices and laying off 220,000 of its hardworking employees. There's something else that you and I won't notice once this is seamlessly implemented: first-class mail will be delayed by an extra day. Mail that normally gets somewhere in a day will take two, and so on. Then if they succeed in duping Congress into believing that eliminating Saturday delivery is a great money-saving idea, then you can factor in another day of delay. But you won't notice. Remember, it'll be seamless. Except if you happen to be one of the thousands that lose their jobs. No doubt you'll notice that. In responding to Thursday's announcement, APWU President Cliff Guffey said, "Degrading service is not the answer to the Postal Service's problems. The Postal Service should be looking for ways to strengthen service and increase relevance in the age of digital communication." Unfortunately, that would require innovative thinking on their part. And the geniuses in Washington can't spell innovative, much less practice it. When the standup talks were given this week, craft employees were warned not to talk to the media lest they be disciplined for insubordination. You don't suppose they might have a differing opinion, do you? We wouldn't want that getting out, now would we? At any rate, the standup talk ended on a cherry note: "Thank you for listening and for the great job you are doing every day." (Now doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?) (Photo source:msnbc.com)

Rep. Darrell Issa: How I Spent My Summer Vacation Well, we can see how Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) spent his summer vacation. He's been putting together a web site. And it's a doozy. It's called "Saving the Postal Service," but the actions he and his cronies in Washington are advocating would actually destroy it and the service it now provides to millions of Americans. According to The Federal Insider, the web site was launched on Wednesday (August 31). The site, which is featured under the banner of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is patently partisan, espousing many of the agenda items the GOP has been pushing since they took over the House back in January. Unlike Fox News (sarcasm here), the site is not fair and balanced. With hearings coming up next week, the purpose of the site is to push Issa's efforts at hobbling the Postal Service, with the ultimate goal of eventually privatizing it. The means by which Issa and the GOP would do this is HR 2309, which he falsely trumpets as upgrading "the Postal Service, building off what works and fixing what doesn't." One of the things that isn't working, according to Issa, is collective bargaining for its craft employees. One of the "highlights" of his bill is this: "Constant Accountability: when the Postal Service fails to pay its bills for more than 30 days, an independent watchdog is empowered to cut costs much like a bankruptcy judge when a corporation can't pay its bills--this includes addressing expensive labor agreements...(emphasis added)." Another of the bill's "highlights" is "Saving through Flexible Delivery: the Postal Reform Act (HR 2309) saves an estimated $3 billion a year by giving the Postal Service the option of eliminating Saturday delivery (emphasis added)." There's plenty of skewed information to be had on the site including a non-fact that Issa continues to use even though he has been corrected about it numerous times. It comes under the misleading heading of: "No Taxpayer Bailouts: plan delivers an efficient, effective Postal Service without the thinly-veiled taxpayer bailout proposed by other bills (emphasis added)." By thinly-veiled taxpayer bailouts, Issa is referring to HR 1351, a bill supported by the NALC and other postal unions. That bill, introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), would allow the Postal Service to use billions of dollars in pension over-payments to meet its financial obligations--including the Congressional mandate to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees. That mandate -- which no other agency has to pay -- requires the USPS to fund a 75-year liability over a 10 year period and costs the Postal Service (not taxpayers) more than $5.5 billion a year. But rather than consider that bill, Issa wants to pass his bill, a bill that would, among other things, empower a board to unilaterally cut wages, abolish benefits, and end protection against layoffs; create a commission to order $1 billion worth of post office closures in the first year, and $1 billion worth of facility closures in the second year; increase employees' costs for healthcare and life insurance; eliminate the right to bargain over these benefits; and eliminate Saturday service (and several thousand jobs). All of the site's so-called "facts" and news items are slanted in favor of Issa's plan for the Postal Service and its employees. To contact Rep. Issa's office, you may go here. To contact your congressional representative and ask them to support a much better bill, HR 1351, go here. And for the real facts on how to save the Postal Service, go to the NALC's web site. (Image Source:FreeRepublic.com)

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness —” So begins Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Tale of Two Cities.” Those words could just as easily have been written to describe 21st century America. Yes, it is the best of times — for Big Business, Big Banks, and Wall Street with their record profits. In 2009 we bailed out Wall Street while flooding Main Street and swamping thousands of homeowners with foreclosures. In 2010 our politicians voted to give a tax break to our country’s millionaires and billionaires while thousands of middle-class Americans stood in unemployment lines and our state and national treasuries foundered in red ink. Ours is an age in which the self-proclaimed “wise” among us observe our catastrophic financial crisis, the staggering unemployment, and see as the solution to the problem the cutting of federal employee’s wages, benefits, and even their jobs. “Cut and grow!” they chant in unison, “Cut and grow!” as jobs, benefits and wages are carved to the bone and Big Business, with nearly $2 trillion in the Bank, grow yet bigger and more powerful. In our “wisdom,” instead of penalizing the people who got us into this mess, we’re penalizing our public sector employees, treating our public servants as if their public enemies: freezing their pay, cutting their pensions, eliminating their health care. And while our politicians acknowledge our nation’s unemployment problem with lip-service, they propose that we cut the federal workforce by more than 200,000 jobs. How’s that for wisdom? In order to create jobs we must eliminate jobs. Actually, what’s happening is that they’re cutting more well-paying jobs in order to create more low-paying jobs, jobs without benefits, jobs without pensions. Right now, under our very noses, there is an unprecedented attack on middle class Americans. There is at this very moment, whether you realize it or not, an attack on YOU and YOUR family. Are you aware of it? And if you are, what are you doing about it? There was a time in our history when being a federal employee meant job security for life. There was a time when those who were federal employees deemed themselves fortunate. That’s no longer the case. Today federal employees are an endangered species, as is the middle class as a whole. If you think because you’re employed by the U.S. Postal Service, the nation’s most trusted federal agency, that you’ll have a pension waiting for you when you retire, don’t count your eggs before they’re hatched. There’s a fox in the henhouse. At this very moment postal leadership in Washington is working tirelessly to influence anti-worker, anti-union legislators on Capitol Hill to “save money” by cutting mail delivery days to five, downplaying the fact that it would actually be making a profit if it weren’t paying billions of dollars annually into its retirement fund—a decade in advance. And they’re getting plenty of support from the news media and a general public that doesn’t know any better. Why would postal management, our representatives in Washington and the media misrepresent the facts? One word. Greed. And the way to appease that greed is through privatization. Don’t be deceived, that’s their aim. Privatize the Postal Service, make it into a private company, like Wal-Mart, and it will reap financial bonuses for those at the top within the organization and for those investors outside the organization. They will garner huge profits by doing away with its unions, hiring part-time help, paying slave wages, and laughing when their employees ask about a possible pension upon retirement. Many of our members here in North Carolina obviously don’t realize what’s at stake. I know this for at least two reasons: 1. A very small number of your typical branch membership attends its monthly meetings. And, 2. I have just seen the February issue of The Postal Record listing the names of those, by states, who contributed to COLCPE this past year. Of our state’s retired and active letter carriers, only 477 saw fit to make a contribution in 2010. If your name isn’t on that list, and it wasn’t accidentally omitted, I would encourage you to think about your family and your future. For this past year’s mid-term elections, Big Business contributed over $1 billion to their candidates. How much did you contribute to yours? If you think for a minute that times are hard right now, I’m here to tell you that you ain’t seen nothing yet. The anti-worker, anti-union, anti-middle class legislators we elected last year are just getting started, the cuts have just begun. And in 2012 they will be attempting to add even more like-minded individuals to their ranks. It does not bode well for either you or me, only for America’s wealthiest. In closing, I urge you, if you aren’t already, become politically involved, make your voice heard, and invest in your future by giving to COLCPE. If we don’t get involved in the political process, the worst of times will get even worse.

The U.S. Postal Service: Master of Spin I wrote recently about certain media outlets, like The Washington Post, deliberately distorting the facts surrounding the financial plight of the Postal Service. Today I'd like to talk about another culprit who is intentionally misleading the public and Congress. That culprit is the United States Postal Service. It's one thing for certain "news" media - like Fox News for example - to deliver news that is anything but "fair and balanced," but it's another thing when the Postal Service itself skewers the facts in its misguided efforts to reduce delivery days from six to five, to significantly reduce its full-time workforce in favor of part-timers, and to have Congress interfere in our collective bargaining process. But, of course, for those of us who have worked for the Postal Service, this doesn't come as a big surprise. The Postal hierarchy has used underhanded tactics in dealing with its employees and its customers for decades. Over the years it has become a well-oiled "spin machine." Now it's using its skill at distorting the facts in order to make the American public actually believe that five-day mail delivery is the best and only way for it to become profitable again. The USPS would have Congress believe that the "American public" is in favor of five-day delivery. Much of this is the result of flawed polling practices in which questions are asked in a misleading way and without giving the pollee all the pertinent information. Thus the poll results give a misleading picture of what the "American public" wants. This is nothing new for the Postal Service. They've done the same thing with the Voice of the Employee surveys for years. Garbage in, garbage out. In news releases over the past several months the USPS has attempted to hinder good-faith negotiations between the USPS and its unions. In an effort to get Congress and the public to side with it, it has stated that in the event of contract negotiation impasses "an arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Service's financial obligations when rendering a decision." This is bull puckey. Anytime an arbitrator considers a case, the Postal Service's finances are always taken into consideration. One would think that with the House's majority in favor of "less government" interference, this wouldn't be a potential problem. Unfortunately, that same majority is also in favor of privatizing government agencies so that big corporations make more money, so it needs to be monitored very closely. It's a shame that the Postal Service has to rely on misleading news stories in order to make its case before Congress, but whenever we see this cropping up in our local news outlets, we need to do the same thing that our leaders are doing on the national level and move quickly to set the record straight.

Happy New Year!? The ball in Times Square has dropped, the confetti has been thrown and the champagne drunk. 2010 is finally over! Happy New Year! Like everyone else I’m hoping and praying that 2011 will be an improvement over 2010. What a bumpy ride that was. I’m still nauseous. Hopefully the economy will improve in the coming year and those who are currently out of work will find jobs. That would definitely be an improvement over 2010. Alas, even though the employment picture may improve in 2010, look for wages and benefits to diminish for middle-class Americans while big business will grow richer and fatter. Yes, more Americans will find employment, but it will be at places like Wal-Mart where wages are low and benefits are nil. And it doesn’t take a crystal ball or reading tea leaves to see that government employees and quasi-government employees (USPS), will take a beating over the next 12 months. One foreshadowing of this came in December when the White House froze the pay of federal employees for at least the next two years. The only ones escaping the freeze were a small group of government workers whose wages are negotiated through collective bargaining. It’s my understanding that the White House will address this “problem” in the next few days. Administration officials are now reviewing possible legal issues that could arise if unions within the government have their raises frozen. If the White and our boys and girls in Congress do tamper with these collective bargaining agreements how will it affect collective bargaining and unions as a whole? If the White House sides with the Republicans on this issue (and it looks like it could), the NALC’s contract negotiations with the USPS later this year will be severely hobbled. Let me leave you with two quotes that I feel are representative of the attitude in Washington right now regarding unions. In December incoming Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said: “We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and the taxpayers who foot the bill are the have nots.” And a possible Republican candidate for 2012?s elections, outgoing Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “Unionized public employees are making more money, receiving more generous benefits and enjoying greater job security than then working families forced to pay for it with ever-higher taxes, deficits and debt.” My prediction for 2011: Look for attacks on organized labor to not only continue but to grow in intensity in 2011. Remember that what adversely affects one union, adversely affects us all. And whether the general public realizes it or not, what adversely affects unions in this country will also affect the wages and benefits of non-union workers as well. Happy New Year!

The Tip of the Iceberg On Wednesday (December 8) Republicans voted down the bill (HR 5987) that would have given senior adults on Social Security an additional $250 in 2011. This would have helped to offset the fact that Social Security recipients won’t be getting a cost-of-living increase next year despite the fact that their cost of living has increased. The vote was 254 against and 153 for. If the man or who represents your district is a Republican, they voted against it. Hopefully, you know who your representative is and how to get in contact with them. Interestingly, the cost of living won’t officially go up until consumer prices rise above those of 2009. Those of you on Social Security got a little extra that year mainly because gas prices went above $4 a gallon. See, there’s an upside to high gas prices. Now if the gas prices go above $4 a gallon in 2011, you’ll get a cost-of-living increase. One of the problems with this current formula regarding the cost of living is that it’s not accurate. Senior adults, as you are well aware if you’re one of them, pay more for health care and medications than those who are younger and healthier. Representative Sam Johnson (R-Tex) commented after the defeat of the bill that “increasing our nation’s crushing deficit on the backs of our children by an additional $14 billion is wrong.” My question for representative Johnson and his colleagues on the Republican side of the House would be, “Where the heck were you when President Bush was busy amassing all of these deficits during the 8 years of his administration? Are you just now coming out of the woodwork?” And if he and the other Republicans are so deeply concerned about this “crushing deficit,” how come they just gave tax breaks to everyone making over $250,000 a year? Taxes paid by our nation’s top two percent would have gone a long way to reduce said deficit. I agree with Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare who said in response to Wednesday’s vote that it was a “cruel irony” that while Congress and the White House were negotiating a deal extending huge tax cuts to the wealthy, that it’s somehow fiscally irresponsible to provide our senior citizens with an extra $250. For those writing or calling your congress person, the bill to reference is HR 5987. For a list of North Carolina’s representatives and how to contact them, click here. If you haven’t contacted your representative before, I would suggest you make a habit of it in the future because what we’re seeing now in Congress is just the tip of the iceberg. It will get worse in 2011.

Unemployment Benefits Stop But Congress' Stupidity Doesn't I guess I really should stop watching the news and reading it because what I see and read makes my blood boil. It cuts down on the cost of heating my house, but I'm taking more blood pressure medicine. So I guess it all evens out. But if I didn't keep tabs on what's happening, especially in our disfunctional Congress, I would be what Craig Schadewald identified earlier on this site, an ostrich. Nothhing like hiding youer head in the sand while someone is kicking you vigoriously in the butt. The unemployment rate has now risen to 9.8 percent from 9.6 in October. In addition to that horrible fact, the lame ducks in Congress have allowed the benefits to our nation's unemployed lapse, just as they did this past summer. There are nearly 39,000 Americans losing their unemployment benefits daily. This week 800,000 Americans, our neighbors, received their last unemployment check. By the end of the year 2 million people will have lost their benefits. There will be another 1 million without money to pay for their housing, food, medicine, etc, in January. So how is Congress addressing the problem? They're haggling over the Bush tax cuts. The Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for those making up to $250,000. According to polls, most Americans agree that the tax cuts should be extended for the middle class and should lapse for the nation's millionaires and billionaires. But the Republicans, and a few conservative Democrats, say oh no, that's penalizing the rich for being wealthy. It's either everyone gets a tax break, or no one. It's all or nothing. In an effort to "compromise," one Senator has even introduced a bill having the extensions extended to a million dollars, hoping that would appease the opposition. No deal. The incoming Speaker of the House, John Boener, calls it "chicken crap." Congress is due to vote on the tax thing Saturday morning. Neither of the bills is expected to pass. Republicans say they won't even consider the unemployment benefits situation until taxes are extended to the wealthy. The AFL-CIO has made a video available and even has a letter you can edit, sign and send to your congressman/congresswoman telling them to extend the unemployment benefits to those who are facing a mighty bleak Chritmas and new year. You can view the video here. Now, I'm going to go and pop another blood pressure pill.

Of Turkeys and Lame Ducks Just as the sparrows return each spring to San Juan Capistrano, the turkeys have returned to Washington after the Thanksgiving holiday and are now busy giving their constituents the bird. Yes, it seems the Thanksgiving turkey has plenty of company at the chopping block. Among the proposed choppees are Social Security recipients (present and future), Medicare recipients, the unemployed and all federal civilian employees, and the health care reform law. But not to worry, if you make over $250,000 a year, your tax breaks won't be affected. Congratulations. However, for the rest of us, 2011 is not shaping up to be a banner year. The turkeys in Washington are evidently seeking revenge on behalf of those who recently lost their lives so we could fill our bellies. They plan to hit us where it hurts: In our wallets ( Those owning Gucci handbags will not be affected). It has been reported that members of the Republican Party intend to block all Democratic-backed bills that are not connected to government spending and tax breaks. Especially tax breaks for the wealthy. They definitely want to make sure that the top two-percent in our country get their tax breaks. In case you missed it, President Obama announced a two year wage freeze for all civilian government employees. This under the auspices of "shared sacrifice." Everyone is to share in this particular sacrifice...unless of course you make over $250,000. You will be exempt. This exemption, of course, would include most Congressmen (and no letter carriers). But that's fair, right? After all, most Republicans and everyone at Fox News believes that government employees make way too much money anyway. This despite a recent report from OPM that private-sector workers earned at least 24 percent more than federal employees in 2010. And now, with the freeze, that disparity will grow even wider. Although that freeze doesn't directly affect letter carriers and other postal employees, it's definitely going to make our contract negotiations even more difficult. And we can see from how things have gone with the APWU and the rural carriers in their negotiations, that it wasn't going to be a cakewalk to begin with. Since Republicans have pretty much agreed to block everything except bills pertaining to tax cuts and government spending, we might infer that the NALC-backed bill, HR 5746, would be passed since it will save the Postal Service billions of dollars. Right? Call me cynical if you will, but I have a hunch that the Republicans will block that bill as well. So, if HR 5746 is not passed by the lame ducks before the Christmas recess, it is very doubtful, in my mind, that it will be passed by a turkey-controlled Congress in 2011. Let me hasten to add, however, that this doesn't mean that five-day delivery of mail is a done deal. It does mean, however, that we've got our jobs cut out for us in 2011. If we haven't been politically active in the past, it would behoove all of us who are employed by the Postal Service, to get involved and make sure we retain six-day delivery. If we don't, privatization is just around the corner, and with it will come lower pay and little, if any benefits. And you can kiss your pension good-bye.

It's Time to Wake Up! First, the good news. North Carolina's letter carriers are in competition with Arizona's letter carriers to see who can get the highest percentage of branch members to contribute to COLCPE, the NALC's political action fund. The good news is this: North Carolina leads Arizona by two percentage points. But before you start high-fiving and fist-bumping your fellow carriers, listen to the bad news. We have 76 branches in North Carolina. This amounts to 5,362 members. Of those 5,362 members, only 361 give to COLCPE on a regular basis through Gimme 5. That averages out to a whopping (pardon the sarcasm) 6.73 percent of our state's membership. And it gets worse. Of those 76 branches, 40 give nothing to COLCPE on a regular basis. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Arizona on the other hand has only 10 branches in the state, equaling 4,206 members. Of those 4,206, only 201 give to COLCPE. Their percentage is 4.78. In looking at these pitiful figures, I can only shake my head in disbelief. Do you realize that the things we letter carriers enjoy today - things like a five-day work week, paid vacations, paid holidays, sick leave, eight-hour workdays, a contract with our employer, collective bargaining, decent wages, a retirement pension, just to name a few - came about over the past century not because the Postal Service has been overly generous and thought it was a good idea for us to have these things? No. The things we enjoy as letter carriers came about as the result of the efforts of previous letter carriers and their spouses lobbying their congressional representatives to get these benefits. They didn't come easy nor quickly. It required a great deal of sacrifice on their parts and hard work. In case you weren't aware of it, there are people out there in this cold, cruel world who would like to take all of that away from you. And a goodly number of these people were either elected or reelected during the midterm elections. Just because we have something good doesn't mean we're allowed to keep it. As a matter of fact, it's because we have something good - something a lot of people in our nation don't have - that makes them want to take it from us. Our financial future, and the future of our children and grandchildren, is tied up in the White House, the Supreme Court and Congress. Like it or not, these branches of government are influenced by money. It's a fact of life. Those with money have influence, those without it don't. Big business spends a lot of money influencing elections and political figures, influence that has a negative impact on middle-class Americans. That's us. If we don't spend money to educate our legislators and help elect our friends in Congress, we're going to lose everything that we have gained over the last one-hundred years. Having said that, I encourage you to give to COLCPE and become an NALC e-Activist.

Top 10 North Carolina COLCPE Contributing Branches Based on Percent Giving CITY BRANCH MEMBERS GIVING PERCENT Madison 5529     2   1 50% China Grove 5673     3   1 33.33% Jacksonville 3984 112 31 27.68% Lumberton 1670   28   6 21.43% Roxboro 4122   11   2 18.18% New Bern 780   46   7 15.22% Burlington 2262 118 14 11.86% Fayetteville 1128 363 41 11.29% Oxford 1510     9   1 11.11% Sanford 2731   22   2   9.09%

Where's My North Carolina Letter Carrier? This is for those of you who may be wondering where your North Carolina Letter Carrier is; this is for those of you who actually remember that once upon a time, you received The North Carolina Letter Carrier in the mail. There is good news, and there is bad news. The good news is: The January - March edition of The North Carolina Letter Carrier is at the printer, ready to be printed. The bad news is: it's been there since early January. So why hasn't it been printed and mailed out? Before I get to that, please allow me to briefly recap the situation. Back in the spring of '09, the State Association's executive board decided to sever its ties with the publisher of our state paper. This was due mainly to the fact that it was no longer able to print and deliver our paper in a timely manner. As the editor of the paper, I was tasked with the enviable job of locating another printer/mailer to fill the void. This took several months. The reason it took so long was because printing a newsletter and sending it out to a little over 5,000 active and retired letter carriers is an expensive proposition. However, after a lengthy search, and with the help of Charlotte Branch 545, we finally located a reasonably priced printer in Tupelo, Mississippi-- Union Benefit News. Not only would they print The North Carolina Letter Carrier but, in addition (and here's where the reasonably priced part comes in), it wouldn't cost the State Association anything. The cost of printing would be off-set by their selling advertising. Thus, the only cost to us would be for the mailing. We then hooked up with a mailer, Alpha Mailing Service in Shelby, North Carolina. This is how it will work, once the ball starts rolling: Each quarter I will send Union Benefit News a packet of articles. They will format these on computer, adding their advertising, print off the number of copies requested, ship these off to Alpha Mailing, Alpha Mailing will affix the names and addresses to the copies and then send them on their merry way to delighted letter carriers all over the Tar Heel state. On paper, that looks good. However, a problem has developed in transferring the concept into reality. For one thing, the computer down in Tupelo temporarily crashed back in December. That put us behind about a week. But as it turned out, that was the least of our problems. The big problem, a problem that has lasted for a little over two months, has centered around something called a PS Form 3510. For those of you not acquainted with this little jewel, this is an "Application for Additional Entry, Reentry or Special Rate Request for Periodical Publication." Before we could begin printing and mailing out the state paper, we had to submit this form along with two checks, one for $85.00 and another for $65.00. This money covered the cost of processing the application. Without going into a lot of detail here, let me just say that as the result of misinformation, poor communication, some confusion on my part, unreturned phone calls, and an inability or unwillingness on the part of some people to fully appreciate my dilemma, The North Carolina Letter Carrier is now a month behind schedule. However, being the eternal optimist that I am, I believe we made a major break-through this past week. After resubmitting the PS Form 3510 for the umpteenth time, and after receiving the required records from our "former known office of publication," the correct information will be fed into the USPS system and at that point we should be good-to-go. I have been informed that once this information has been fed into the system and our periodical permit is approved, the printing can begin. I am told this will take about two days. This will then be shipped to Shelby, the names and addresses affixed, and the publication will then be mailed out to our state's letter carriers. I am hopeful (knock on wood) that all of our aforementioned problems will be resolved this week, our permit will be approved, and The North Carolina Letter Carrier will be printed and mailed out. If all goes as planned, The North Carolina Letter Carrier should be in your hands by the first week in February. Once we get through this log jam, all of your future issues of The North Carolina Letter Carrier will be delivered in a timely manner each quarter. I will update you on future developments. In the meantime, I thank you for your continued patience and understanding. Updated January 25, 2010

Freedom Isn’t Free And Neither is Collective Bargaining It’s funny how mundane, ordinary things can sometimes spark thoughts and produce images that are anything but mundane or ordinary. Case in point. While rummaging through my closet the other day looking for something to wear, I pulled out one of my old faded T-shirts, one of those kind that has a slogan printed on it. This particular T-shirt had an unfurled flag on the front and over it were written the words FREEDOM ISN’T FREE. The words and the picture conjured up multiple images in my mind: the Declaration of Independence, the Liberty Bell, the Gettysburg Address, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Marines raising Old Glory over Iwo Jima, the D-Day invasion, and the gaunt, grimy faces of fighting men in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. But my scattered thoughts finally came to rest on an incident in history that involved a battle, but not a war. I had a vision of men in uniform, but they weren’t military uniforms. And instead of carrying muskets, carbines or M-16s, they carried picket signs. The signs read: “Letter Carriers on Strike” and “Decent Wages/Decent Conditions.” It was March of 1970, the month and year of the unprecedented postal strike, a strike initiated by over a thousand angry, dissatisfied letter carriers, which would end a week later with well over 200,000 postal workers. The wildcat strike of 1970 had been brewing for several decades and in the minds of many, long overdue. Back in those Dark Ages of the U.S. postal service (then the Post Office Department), wages were far below average for American workers. In the larger cities where the cost of living was higher than other parts of the country, many letter carriers had to apply for welfare. In addition to the pitiful wages were the equally pitiful working conditions. Up until March of 1970 letter carriers and other postal workers had to rely on “collective begging” for what little pay increases they received from their representatives in Congress. In 1970, before the strike, starting pay for a letter carrier was $6,176 a year. And you didn’t get a raise until you had been with the postal service for 21 years. After 21 years you would begin getting paid $8,442 a year. Emotions of the rank and file were at a boiling by 1970. Something was about to blow. Congress in 1969 had added fuel to the pending firestorm by giving carriers a measly 4.1 percent pay raise while giving themselves a whopping 41 percent raise in pay. The pressure cooker finally exploded shortly after midnight on March 18 when angry members of branch 36, New York City, despite court orders, federal anti-strike laws, threats of military intervention, imprisonment, and the loss of their jobs voted 1,555 to 1,055 to strike. The action of those courageous union activists precipitated a huge domino effect all across the country as thousands of other dissatisfied postal workers joined in the massive act of civil disobedience. By March 23 the walkout had spread to 100 cities and towns and had galvanized nearly 250,000 postal workers. After a week of this, with assurances that the government and union leaders were immediately entering into contract negotiations, the quarter-million strikers returned to work with the implied understanding that if the results of those negotiations weren’t to their liking, another, even more devastating strike, would occur. Once the wheels of government had been sufficiently greased by the strike, they began to turn swiftly. By April 2 the NALC had achieved an agreement that included a 14 percent pay increase, a starting salary of $8,440, collective bargaining and a decent pension plan. On August 12, 1970, a law was passed creating the U.S. Postal Service. All of us, active and retired, should remember this courageous act by our predecessors as we enter into the negotiations for our new contract. Our right to collective bargaining and all that it entails, did not come without sacrifice, just as our freedom as American citizens didn’t. Also be cognizant of the fact that our employer, and many in the private sector, resent what we have and would like to take away. The threat of five-day delivery is part of that plan. Ultimately, they would like to privatize the postal service and with that privatization would come a reduction in pay, no insurance coverage, no Thrift Savings Plan, and no pension. In other words, the Postal Service would like for us to go back in time, a time that existed before March of 1970. No, freedom isn’t free and neither are the rights that we enjoy today as letter carriers. Remember, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Sources: http://www.nylcbr36.org/history.htm http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,942202,00.html http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2010/03/the-1970-postal-strike.html http://www.wsws.org/tools/index.php?page=print&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsws.org%2Farticles%2F2010%2Fapr2010%2Fpost-a24.shtml http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4410 http://www.nalc.org/news/bargain/briefhistory.html

Postal Myopia At the end of the first quarter of this year, the Postal Service had lost $297 million. It’s projected that by the end of the year it will have lost $7 billion. And 2011 isn’t looking much better. If the Postal Service were an ocean liner, it would be about three-quarters under water and all those who hadn’t already jumped ship, would be standing on the uppermost desk singing, “Nearer My God to Thee,” just like the remaining passengers and crew on the ill-fated Titanic. On March 2 Postmaster General John Potter unveiled the Postal Service’s plan for the future entitled “Envisioning America’s Postal Future.” According to the “teaser” that preceded the announcement, the Plan was the result of “four months of intense research and discussion.” Actually, the intense research and discussion was performed by some other companies, companies where they get paid to sit around and think. They’re called “think tanks.” For this the Postal Service paid out nearly $5 million. This gives you some idea of what postal management is willing to pay to have others do their thinking for them. After all, thinking is hard work. Now the Postal Service would have Congress and the American public believe that the main culprit in its financial bind is the economy. But that’s only partly true. For example, last year in the private sector FedEx pocketed $98 million in profits and UPS made a tidy little sum of $2.2 billion. Maybe they haven’t been told we’re in a recession. Although it’s true that that the Postal Service lacks the flexibility of its private sector competitors, its real problem is myopia. Myopia is also known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness. If you’re myopic, as I am, you can see objects up close but those at a distance are fuzzy. If you’re human (and I’m assuming you are), you can get the problem corrected with contacts, glasses or LASIK surgery. However, if you’re a business, the solution to myopia is to have “visionary leadership.” Visionary leadership requires that leaders within the organization think “outside the box.” Or, in the case of the Postal Service, “outside the envelope.” Being myopic and sorely lacking in visionary leadership, postal management, for ever so long, has focused on what’s right in front of their noses rather than trying to see down the road. That’s how they got blind-sided by the Internet. Wow, we didn’t see that one coming! Because I have witnessed any number of ingenious plans hatched by the Postal Service over the years, I wasn’t exactly taken aback when I heard that it was wanting to cut delivery days from six to five. This came about as the result of postal management’s “intense research,” before they even paid out five mil to have someone echo the same crack-brained idea. If it were up to the geniuses at L’Enfant Plaza, delivery would have been cut to five days at least a couple of years ago. But fortunately, they can’t make that call. It has to go through the Postal Regulatory Commission and Congress first, neither one of which has been too keen on the idea in the past. Earlier this year the chairperson for the PRC, Ruth Goldway, said, “The Postal Service is an essential part of the country’s infrastructure, so you don’t want to change it willy-nilly.” It would seem that Ms. Goldway considers the Postal Service’s plan to reduce delivery days from six to five as willy-nilly, even though it has said it was the result of “intense research.” I guess one person’s idea of intense research is another’s idea of willy-nilly. In all fairness to the Postal Service, it has floated some good ideas in its tentative approach to the future. A short-term remedy would be for Congress (which is having some myopic problems of its own) to correct the retiree health pre-funding schedule that currently costs the Postal Service $5 billion yearly. According to a recent OIG study, the Postal Service CSRS pension fund remains over-funded by $75 billion. If our congressmen and women stop fighting amongst themselves long enough to get this corrected, it would give the USPS some time to come up with some plans for the future that actually make sense. We are fortunate that we are members of the NALC, an organization that, unlike the Postal Service, has visionary leadership. It would be nice if the Postal Service would fight this battle with us instead of against us. But this is something that often happens when you’re fighting alongside someone who can't see the broadside of a barn.

Start The Presses!!! I am happy to announce that the long-delayed North Carolina Letter Carrier is about to become a reality. Last week we put the finishing touches on paperwork that had to be "just so" in order for the new newsletter to be in compliance with the USPS's Domestic Mail Manual. It seems that it is easier to get a periodical publication permit the first time than it is to change it from one publisher/printer/mailer to another. However, I was informed last week that the proper information had finally been fed into "the system," and all systems are now "Go." Printing was completed on Tuesday, February 9 and then shipped to Alpha Mailing in Shelby, NC for mailing. I am hoping (knock on wood) that the newsletters will start showing up in letter carriers' mailboxes by Saturday, or at the latest, by February 15. At any rate, The North Carolina Letter Carrier is finally on the move. I was told this past week that Union Benefit News in Tupelo, Mississippi, which now does our printing, has recently acquired a color printer which will allow them to print the cover in color. So our State Association logo, which graces the cover of our newsletter, will be in red, white and blue. I believe that will be a nice touch. Although we have changed our publisher, printer and mailer, the articles you have come to expect in The North Carolina Letter Carrier will remain the same. There will still be articles by President Eddie Davidson, Vice President Craig Schadewald, Director of Education Frank Vega, Director of Retirees Wayne White, Area 3 Representative Bob Wahoff, George LeVander's "Sandhill Sayings" and "Words of Wisdom," EAP articles, award-winning cartoons from Wilson letter carrier Robbie Cook (alias Niblos!), and other articles of interest. Again, we apologize for the long delay in getting the newsletter to you, but now that we have gotten all of our i's dotted and t's crossed, The North Carolina Letter Carrier is finally coming your way. We hope you enjoy it.