The Target On Your Back:

by Glenn Littrell, July 2011 Indy Info-Online

It is amazing how everyday there is a new statement from right-wing conservatives that is directed at the working man and their family, federal workers, union members, and the Postal Service.

These statements show an arrogance that should scare the bee-jeebies out of the middle class and particularly Postal Workers. I could list these statements endlessly, as there is no shortage of them, but that would be over-kill and the list is to long to keep the point focused. So here are some of the most egregious and recent attacks, dating from last years 2010 elections, through our contract negotiations and continuing with attacks on our ratified contract:

• 9-27-2010: Rep. Darrell Issa* declares: “No union has or ever will lobby for a layoff, so it’s up to USPS management and Congress to demand concessions.”  Rep. Issa also said that he was against providing Health Care assistance to the first responders at ground zero because, it was just another plane crash…gdl    SOURCE LINK 

note*Rep Darrell Issa is the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform which oversees the Postal Service. If the Republicans gain control over the House he will, as chairman, have tremendous influence over legislation affecting postal employees and other federal workers — deciding which bills are considered and how they are handled.

• Representative Darrel Issa*, who last week suggested that relieving the US Postal Service of its crippling $5.5 billion annual “prefunding” requirement would be a “bailout”, explained today on his FaceBook page that the overpayment, first discovered by the Bush Administration in 2002, is actually a “myth” recently concocted by the US Postal Service. Yet last year Congress, meaning Mr. Issa passed legislation to relieve the Postal Service of that payment last year…was that legislation ‘mythical’… Rep. Issa has since deleted that post from his FaceBook page…gdl SOURCE LINK

9-16-2010: "…most of these guys working in the Post Office should be driving cabs, and I think we should stop importing labor from Nigeria and Ethiopia. That's the skill level…" “Most people employed by the United States Post Office...are thoroughly unskilled labor…there is no good argument as to why the government should be behind some kind of Federal monopoly in the mail service…”   “…the reality is that many in the American ‘middle’ like postal workers are really unskilled labor who should have been pushed down for market reasons…” comments of GOP strategist Jack Burkman** on “Money Rocks”  ”…no good argument as to why the government should be behind some kind of Federal monopoly in the mail service…” Here’s the good argument you idiot…its called the Constitution…read it…gdl   “…does the Postal Service serve any other purpose, anymore, other than inhaling tax dollars and hiring thousands of tellers who seem to take pleasure in making me wait in insanely long lines…” Eric Bolling, host of Money Rocks  “…other than inhaling tax dollars and hiring thousands”?  

Who is this moron confusing us with? The Postal Service was mandated in the 70’s to operate on its own revenues, which has been the case since the 80s, in other words USPS receives NO TAX DOLLARS, we operate strictly from our revenues raised. Most of the Post Office has been under a hiring freeze for years…and has down sized significantly while increasing production…gdl

“…it [the Postal Service] probably should be privatized…” for Senator Al D’Amato, if privatized, once you sold off the money making functions what private company is going to want to run the non-money making functions, which is the bulk of the vast infrastructure? None, then these functions would go back on the tax roles at great expense to the public. For example, what company would want to take responsibility for that 150 mile delivery route in South Dakota which only has 150 delivery addresses? None, how would they make a profit, charge $20.00 to deliver a letter?   gdl

note**The quote above from Jack Burkman set off former Senator Al D’Amato and the other panelist to aggressively distance themselves from his racial references. What is lost in the flair-up that occurred is the numerous miss-representation of the facts, as limited as they were in regards to the Postal Service.

• 10-12-2010: “…Hot on the heels of ace market forecaster Kevin Hassett’s latest predictions comes a rant from that favorite tea bagger think tank, the Cato Institute. Tad Dehaven, who bills himself as a budget analyst, analyzes the USPS by pointing to the fact that “The USPS, which is close to maxing out its $15 billion line of credit with the U.S. Treasury, faces the prospect of running out of operating cash by year’s end.” No mention of the fact that the entire $15 billion in borrowing is due to the “trust fund” requirements of the 2006 PAEA law, which forces the USPS to borrow money from the Treasury so it can turn around and loan the money back to the Treasury. “  SOURCE LINK / WHO IS KEVIN HASSETT  /  REBUTAL TO K.HASSETT

• 2-18-2011: Attacks on the postal service from right-wing conservatives and their propaganda machine, FOXNews continue. “Obama $4 billion taxpayer bailout of the Postal Service” headline on FOXNews contradicts the original article they cite as a reference, there is no reference to a bailout in the article (except for the title). You know what’s going on. How is this a bailout?  This is another example of FauxNews dishonestly promoting an anti-Postal, anti-Postal Worker, anti-Union, anti-Federal Worker agenda. GDL SOURCE LINK / REBUTTAL TO BAILOUT LABEL

• 3-3-2011: “…For Republicans on the subcommittee in particular, this meant significant reductions in the USPS workforce. Congressman Dennis Ross, the chairman of the subcommittee, said in his opening remarks to the hearing… “…work force reductions had to be the “primary focus” of the Postal Service, its unions and Congress to improve financial stability.” And, noting that negotiations between the Postal Service and its unions were currently underway, he added that in his opinion it was not enough to cut staff numbers by attrition and early retirements. “These efforts simply have not resulted in the changes necessary to maintain a self-funding Postal Service,” the Congressman from Florida said. “Realigning the work force by re-examining labor agreements must be part of the strategy to improve the Postal Service fiscal foundations.”      SOURCE LINK 

• 3-9-2011:from postalnewsblog.com  “…on Fox Business News, Congressman Dennis Ross spoke to FBN personality Gerri Willis about the financial state of the US Postal Service. As you might expect, the exchange was fast-paced, long on outrage and disgust on the part of Willis, but short on actual facts. Here’s how it starts: Willis: “Well, there was talk this week about bailing out the post office. They’re running up massive deficits from- what else, but union pensions and benefits- it’s so bad, that they’re not sure that they’ll get through the year!” It went downhill from there…”  SL1 “…On Friday, Congressman Dennis Ross appeared on Fox Business News to talk about the US Postal Service. As we told you on Saturday, both he and his hostess had some difficulties getting their facts straight. Ross’s biggest whopper was telling the audience that the average postal employee  “…paid $32.00 a month for health benefits.” (This comes at about 5 minutes into the video).SL2 As we pointed out in our previous blog post, there isn’t even a single plan that offers premiums that low…” SL3       SOURCE LINK 1  /  SOURCE LINK 2  /  SOURCE LINK 3

• 3-29-2011: from postalnewsblog.com “McCain amendment [SA 251.] would make postal workers pay more for health insurance:  US Postal Service employees pay less for their health and life insurance than other federal workers. While other employees have 72% of their health premiums paid for by the government, the postal service pays 79% of the premium for its employees. Postal executives pay nothing for health insurance. An amendment introduced by Senator John McCain would change that, requiring the USPS not to exceed the percentage contribution paid for other federal workers. The amendment would be enforced by depriving the USPS of its borrowing authority in any fiscal year that it fails to comply…”    What McCain, who knows better, ignores is: Postal employees don’t get Locality Pay, like FEDERAL employees (almost 30% in Metro [DC] Areas) and in DC federal employees get $100+ every month to take the Metro to work. They also don’t get random federal holidays as announced by the President, any of those snow days the other agencies get off when their areas gets hit with snow. Nor does he offer to increase his own $0 premiums, or extend the retirement requirement for Congress to a minimum of 20 years like Postal Worker. gdl    SOURCE LINK

• April 2011: A bill sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to ease the USPS financial crisis also would require arbitrators to “consider the financial health” of the USPS when contract negotiations reach an impasse. Although the bill (S. 353 [PDF]) has some beneficial provisions, it would give management an unfair advantage in bargaining. This is similar to the “Coburn Amendment” that we had fought against for years. Had that amendment passed we would have been at a great disadvantage during contract negotiations…gdl. SOURCE LINK

• 4-5-2011:  “At an April 5 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other Republicans repeatedly criticized Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and members of the USPS Board of Governors for agreeing to the union’s demand during negotiations to retain protection against layoffs.”

• “Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) introduced a bill that would deny federal workers hired after 2012 the right to participate in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). If approved, S. 644 [PDF] would end the defined benefits portion of the FERS program and leave in place only the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). ”      SOURCE LINK

• 4-13-2011: “On April 13, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Chairman Darryl Issa (R-CA), approved The Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2011, which would require the Postal Service and other federal agencies to terminate any employee who is delinquent in his or her federal taxes. ” “Democratic representatives deemed the measure unnecessary, as existing laws allow for garnishment procedures in cases of unpaid taxes. They also pointed out that terminating delinquent employees would be counterproductive, because it would deny the government any real opportunity to collect taxes from fired workers.   SOURCE LINK

• 6-6-2011: “…Recent news stories suggest that the Postal Service’s financial problems will lead to the downfall of the USPS. Bloomberg Businessweek published an article on May 27 titled “The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse,” which blamed the Postal Service’s financial crisis on labor costs. “The Postal Service’s business model [is] so badly broken that collapse [is] imminent,” the article concluded. Other news sources blamed e-mail for the Postal Service’s decline. A report on National Public Radio (NPR) said, “The U.S. Postal Service can’t shrink fast enough. Its revenues are falling and its losses are rising as mail migrates to the Internet.”   BUT: “The true cause of the Postal Service’s financial woes is the congressionally-imposed mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund future retiree health benefits,” Guffey said, “but you wouldn’t know it from reading many of the recent articles about the USPS. “Absent this pre-funding burden, the Postal Service would have experienced a cumulative surplus, despite falling mail volume and the worst recession in recent history,” he added.” from The American Postal Workers Union, REBUTAL TO BUSINESSWEEK ARTICLE

• 6-17-2011: GOP Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty apparently felt the need to prove his right wing credentials in a speech today in Chicago, calling for the privatization of just about everything the government does, including the post office.  SOURCE LINK

Alas, management is starting to see the writing on the wall...after years of playing around with the lives/careers of their workers they are starting to feel the impact and realizing that they're NEXT. First the head of NAPS started registering complaints about their workload increasing as they've given the 'shaft' to workers for the sake of the service and now the head of the National League of Postmasters is afraid the lies they have helped support are getting close to them, too close. The never ending attacks [along with their targeted and intentional inaccuracies] have gotten so bad that for the first time in memory even the management associations [their form of union representation] are starting to join the Chorus led by the APWU and NALC:

• The real facts and figures behind the Postal Service  Mark Strong, president of the National League of Postmasters

• NAPS: The Threat to End Collective Bargaining Jay Killackey, Executive Vice President, National Association of Postal Supervisors

• Postal Legislation In The Wings   from postalnewsblog.com [Bruce Moyer, NAPS Legislative Counsel]

5-3-2011: “Last week marked two critical milestones in the 2011 Organizational Redesign process. Monday, April 25, was the deadline for employees who accepted the Postal Service’s 2011 Special Incentive Offer. And Thursday, April 28, General Reduction in Force (RIF) Notices were sent to employees who could be affected by a potential RIF in their competitive area. USPS prepared separate General RIF Notices for each competitive area that still may be subject to a RIF. However, not everyone in those competitive areas will receive a notice, because they went only to employees who could be affected….”    read more Thank your lucky stars if your in the APWU…no layoffs! GlennDL

6-22-2011: “…according to celebrated weeping lunatic Glenn Beck, Rolando [NALC President] wants to help President Obama create a secret paramilitary force of letter carriers to take over the country.” SOURCE LINK 

6-24-2011: “Congressman Dennis Ross appears to believe that the US Postal Service has something called “paid reserve staff” who “wait daily until needed”.  SOURCE LINK       I REST MY CASE… gdl

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• Top 10 Darrell Issa Hall of Shame Moments

• In 1982, U.S. postage stamps became "postal products," rather than a form of taxation. Since then, The bulk of the cost of operating the postal system has been paid for by customers through the sale of "postal products" and services rather than taxes.

  On ending Saturday delivery: “We think this is a terrible proposal for many reasons,” he wrote in a June 2010 press release. “We feel this proposal will lead to the destruction of the greatest postal service in the world.” McLennan said service actually should be expanded. “   SOURCE LINK

  Read more on Postal Policy Making News

by Glenn Littrell, Editor: IndyInfo.

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