Union rep fights postal changes Cutbacks would hurt service, carrier says.

Kevin Boyer delivers mail on his Columbia route yesterday. Boyer, the state president for the National Association of Letter Carriers, says he thinks the move from six days of postal service to five days will lead to the downfall of the U.S. Postal Service.

 T.J. GREANEY

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Kevin Boyer is a hulking man with tattoo-covered arms, a shaved head and a goatee. But this Harley rider gets downright emotional when the subject turns to the future of the U.S. Postal Service.

“I don’t want this to be a career that lasts until I retire,” he said. “I want it to be here long after I’m gone.”

Boyer, 46, is the state president for the National Association of Letter Carriers. He delivers mail to 734 homes each day in the Vanderveen subdivision and in his spare time advocates on behalf of 6,100 letter carriers statewide as their labor union leader.

He has become convinced that the shift from delivery six days a week down to five proposed by the postmaster general will be the first step down a slippery slope. That slope, he said, will lead to a drastic reduction in mail service in the United States — in which five-day delivery eventually becomes four-day or even three-day and universal service to all homes shrinks to eliminate delivery to rural addresses.

“The two things we have over our competitors right now is: We’re universal; we’ll go to the last mile in the county; and we’ll deliver on Saturday, and they won’t,” he said. “If we lose those two things, then what do we have?”

But USPS administrators see it differently. The Postal Service lost $3.8 billion in fiscal year 2009 and projects a $238 billion shortfall over the next decade. They blame the recession and a shift toward electronic communication. In 2009, the USPS handled 25.6 billion fewer pieces of mail than it had the previous year.

“The Postal Service has changed with America for over 200 years,” said Valerie Hughes, U.S. Postal Service Gateway District spokeswoman “We used to be the Pony Express, you know, and we’ve adapted.”

Cutting delivery on Saturday, the lowest volume day of the week, would save $3 billion annually, according to USPS estimates.

Hughes said there is no plan in place to eliminate universal service, which is mandated by law. And, she said, the elimination of Saturday delivery will not cost full-time letter carriers their jobs. Instead, she said, the USPS will simply use fewer temporary and part-time carriers.

“This plan is actually a plan that looks clear to the year 2020, trying to get us back on a path of financial stability and solvency,” Hughes said. “It’s no fly-by-night thing.”

Boyer believes losing a delivery day would cost 1,000 Missouri carriers their jobs.

One issue both sides agree on is the need to end a costly system that requires USPS employees to prefund their retiree health care and pension costs. The USPS is the only government agency required to do so, and it forces it to set aside $5.5 billion annually. A report submitted by the Postal Regulatory Commission on June 30 added fuel to the fire by stating that USPS employees had overpaid the Civil Service Retirement System by a total of $50 billion to $55 billion historically.

Labor leaders like Boyer are demanding repayment, and they believe this discrepancy has meant the USPS has overstated its losses in recent years.

Many of these decisions will be played out in Congress, which must vote to allow USPS to reduce its delivery days or change its pension payment model. A House resolution supporting six-day service has 225 co-sponsors. Postmaster General John Potter has said he would like to shift to five-day delivery as early as October. The Postal Regulatory Commission is accepting public comments on the proposal.

Boyer promises to be a loud voice in opposition. He said business today is conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the USPS is hastening its irrelevance by cutting back service to five days. He said private companies will step in to fill the void left by Saturday delivery, and the USPS will lose customers such as Amazon and pharmacies that guarantee speedy delivery.

More than anything, he said, these cuts threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of workers.

“It’s almost like InBev taking over Anheuser-Busch,” he said. “If you’re a stockholder, maybe you think that’s OK because your stock is going to be worth more. But all those people who work there, when they start slashing jobs and make the people get by with less, what are they going to do? And at the end of it, are they really making the company any stronger?”

Reach T.J. Greaney at 573-815-1719 or e-mail tjgreaney@columbiatribune.com.

Help FedEx Workers Get a Fair Election Process

This update on the efforts to let FedEx workers organize under democratic rules was sent in by a reader.  Let's encourage our Congressional delegation to get behind this bill.




From Leadership Conference on Civil Rights E-news
New Report Shows How a Legal Loophole Limits Union Organizing at FedEx Express

June 15, 2010 - Posted by Ron Bigler

As many as 100,000 workers who drive trucks and deliver packages for FedEx Express face unfair obstacles to organizing unions<http://www.civilrights.org/publications/fedex-rla-loophole/> because the company has been misclassified under federal labor laws, according to a new report<http://www.civilrights.org/publications/fedex-rla-loophole/> from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The report, "Railroaded out of Their Rights<http://www.civilrights.org/fedex/>," explores the history of FedEx Express' coverage under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), a 1920's era labor law that was intended to regulate the railroad and airline industries. FedEx Express has lobbied aggressively to remain covered under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), while similar package-delivery companies such as UPS are covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Under the RLA, a union must organize all the employees who do similar work throughout an entire company simultaneously, while under the NLRA workers can organize on a location-by-location basis. As a result, even if a majority of FedEx Express workers are in favor of a union at one location, they are denied the opportunity to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

"Companies that provide a similar service and that are operated in a similar way should be treated similarly under the law," said Wade Henderson, President of The Leadership Conference.  "FedEx's opposition to being covered under the NLRA is not about corporate rivalry; it is about denying workers their civil right to be represented and protected by a union."

The Leadership Conference is urging members of Congress to enact the pending FAA Reauthorization Act with the language approved by the House of Representatives, which would place FedEx Express ground transportation employees under the NLRA and give them an equal opportunity to organize.m Leadership Conference on Civil Rights e-news:

Mott's Workers Take Stand Against Corporate Greed

Send an email to help the RWDSU members at Mott's. 

 

On May 23, over 300 full time manufacturing workers at the Mott’s plant in Williamson, New York, were forced to strike after company executives demanded painful wage cuts while the company enjoyed a record year of $555 million in profits. Visit this page regularly for the latest news on the workers' fight for a fair contract.

Click here to send a letter to Dr. Pepper Snapple CEO Larry Youngletting him know you think his company's attempts to slash the Mott's workers benefits and pay are unacceptable.

RWDSU Local 220 Facebook page here

In Battle with Dr Pepper, Workers Take on Poster Child for Corporate Greed

Good-bye Dr. Pepper, Snapple and Mott's apple sauce!  Missouri is ground zero for three battles to preserve pension benefits - Mott's, Boeing and state workers.   This is looking like the decade of the shrinking pension unless labor is united against the corporate raid on our money.  

by Shelly Snyder | Wed, 06/16/2010 - 12:15pm

• Shelly Snyder's blog
• Editor’s note: Three hundred workers at the Mott’s apple products plant near Rochester, New York, have been on strike over unfair labor practices since May 23. In contract talks the company demanded a $1.50-an-hour pay cut, elimination of the pension, and a 20 percent cut in company 401(k) contributions. When the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union didn’t agree, the company declared an impasse and imposed its terms unilaterally.

A small group of Mott’s workers, who make apple juice, apple sauce, and Clamato, traveled to Texas to confront top execs at a stockholder meeting and another group protested the company’s CEO at a Goldman Sachs symposium in New York City. Strikers also leafleted company facilities in Pennsylvania and St. Louis.

A note from the RWDSU Local 220 membership:

Day 20 on the picket line. The rain has stopped and finally all of our union brothers and sisters have warmed up in the sun. Most of us on the picket line have never been through anything like this strike.

Fear is a factor out here because Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which owns Mott’s, has played on our worst fears: the loss of everything we have worked so hard for in our lives.

But fear is only one factor! The biggest factor is the true sense of solidarity and unity amongst us. We are determined to win the battle against corporate greed.

Prior to Dr Pepper taking over, the company and the union were like a family. When the company did well, we all did well. There were many family-oriented functions sponsored by the company outside of our contract. We all felt we jointly contributed to Mott’s success.

Shortly after Dr Pepper took over, things changed—no more Easter hams, no more Christmas party, no more family functions of any kind, and, of course, no more bonuses! We were told, “there’s a new sheriff in town,” and that the only benefits we would enjoy were those that were contractual.

We became dots on their PowerPoint presentation, not the longtime dedicated and skilled employees we are. We are now seen as mere commodities, like grain, sugar, and oil. What happened to the human factor?

I have been here 12 years, and many of my co-workers have 20, 30, or 40-plus years supporting this company and its products. These people are now wondering what their lives will be like when they retire, as they watch the profits for Dr Pepper skyrocket—$555 million in 2009.

To the workers who helped them reach that phenomenal profit in a recession, Dr Pepper said thank you by cutting wages, eliminating pensions, contributing less to our 401(k), hacking away at our health care, and much more.

Dr Pepper is the poster child for corporate greed! Stand tall with us, America, and stop by our picket line. We’re out there 24 hours a day, rain or shine.

Shelly Snyder is a RWDSU Local 220 member and Mott’s label operator.

Boeing machinists reject contract; vote to strike

Whenever the economy takes a dive, you can count on corporations taking advantage of bad times to attack worker's benefits, especially health care and pensions.  We all need to be ready to support the Machinists in their battle to keep a decent pension for all their members at Boeing.  Their fight in our fight!

By Ken Leiser

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

06/14/2010

ST. CHARLES — Union machinists at Boeing's defense plants in Hazelwood and St. Charles voted overwhelmingly Sunday to reject a company contract offer and to strike.

During a two-hour meeting at the St. Charles Family Arena, members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 cheered after it was announced that the membership had rejected the contract 1,548-532. The strike vote passed 1,619-459. Union officials said June 23 is the earliest a strike would begin.

The votes followed an all-out campaign by Boeing to persuade workers to support the deal, including postcards to Machinists' homes and "all-hands" meetings, a union official said Sunday.

"They went above and beyond what they ever have in any other contract to try to get the membership to buy this contract," said Gordon King, the president and directing business representative for District 837. "The membership saw through that." 

Boeing's 41/2-year proposal would have raised Machinists' salaries an average of 3.6 percent a year and would have sweetened pension benefits for those already employed by the company. But King said the contract wasn't rejected based on the economic package so much as a possible hit to retirement benefits of future workers.

Under the company proposal, workers hired after January 2012 would not be covered by the same defined pension benefit plan current workers receive but would instead receive a contribution plan similar to an enhanced 401(k).

"All across the aerospace industry, they've been taking away defined pension plans, putting in 401(k)s, then a contract or two after that, they've been taking the 401(k) away from them," King said.

King added that Boeing's contract proposal also would have forced employees to pay 100 percent of their dependents' health care if the employee is on a leave of absence that exceeds six months and would have made changes to prescription drug benefits.

Tom Gianino, a 27-year Boeing employee, said he voted to reject the contract and to strike, in part, because of the loss of pension benefits for new employees.

"I'm not going to be here, but I want to leave a legacy that we left this in better shape than when we found it," said Gianino, a materials handler who participated in the 99-day strike the Machinists waged against McDonnell Douglas in 1996.

Like many of those who attended Sunday's meeting, he wore a T-shirt that read: "A quality contract for a quality workforce." The International Association of Machinists represents 2,533 workers in the St. Louis area.

In a statement, Boeing Co. officials expressed disappointment in Sunday's vote.

"The work we perform here in St. Louis is critically important to our country and the men and women of our armed services," the company said. "The fair and equitable contract we put forward recognizes the contributions made by our union employees in terms of enhanced salary, benefits and pension."

Last week, union aerospace workers began returning to work at Boeing's C-17 assembly facility in Long Beach following a monthlong strike there. The contract included a similar contribution benefit plan to the one St. Louis-area machinists object to, company officials said.

But King said the future of the C-17 military cargo jet program is more precarious than the products built in St. Louis — namely the F-15, F/A-18 Super Hornet and the missiles plant. Local employees also do some work on the C-17.

King said there will now be a seven-day cooling off period. During that time, King can send a letter to Boeing alerting the company that workers will strike on midnight of the seventh day after receipt of that letter.

King said he planned to contact Boeing officials Sunday to notify them of the strike vote and see whether they are willing to go back to the bargaining table.

"I'll probably give them until Wednesday to go back to the table," King said. "If we don't hear anything from them by Wednesday, we will be dropping the letter to go on strike."

King said the union has a strike fund through the district and the international.