At the end of a lengthy analysis of the prospects for postal legislation yesterday, long-time postal union leader William Burrus made a statement that could signal a change in strategy on five-day delivery:
"His [President Obama's] proposal includes 5 day delivery which is strongly opposed by the unions but the decision must be made on which fights to engage in and with whom. Do we fight the Republican efforts to destroy the Postal Service and the unions or do we fight the Obama inclusion of 5 day delivery. This is a legislative and executive decision but it is time to decide and serious consideration must be given to the results if you don't prevail. In American Politics you can be right and lose."
Burrus has retired from the presidency of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) but still has plenty of connections in and knowledge of Washington's ways. Dead Tree Edition has questioned his rhetoric and math at times (See Mathematically Challenged: Burrus Proposal Doesn’t Add Up for USPS and The Reinterpretation of William Burrus) but not his political savvy or inside information.
Burrus' statement suggests that the prospects are slim for getting the Obama Administration to change its mind on preserving Saturday delivery. Without an Obama push to counter the mostly anti-union Republicans, a labor-supported position has little hope for success these days.
Burrus seems to be suggesting that the postal unions save their powder for a more important and more winnable fights. Tops on the list is stopping the Issa/Ross bill that would put the U.S. Postal Service into something resembling Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and potentially tear up the union contracts. Related battles are ending USPS's subsidies of the federal government that have pushed it to the verge of insolvency and opposing postal management's request to void the no-layoff clauses in union contracts.
Update: Burrus took offense at suggestions he may be "throwing in the towel" on preserving six-day delivery -- Burrus Responds: Not Giving Up on 6-Day Delivery.
Other articles on Obama's Postal Service proposals:
20 comments:
I have been a letter carrier for 30 years and have always , and still do, get asked out on the route "Mail on Saturdays?" Even now I certainly see lower volume on this day. I feel if it helps the USPS remain viable we cut out Saturday delivery but definitely keep the office open for customers to purchase stamps,send off packages etc..even if it is for a few hours.
Trust me, history does not hinge on what Bill Burris has to say.
That’s what management and the corporate fascists want you to believe. Management has been asleep at the wheel since 1983. They are more concerned about increasing their ranks and their bogus bonus numbers. They can still give every delivery address an email address and recover some of what they lost. Only 51% of Americans have computers at home and of them only 47.5 have internet. There is still time for management to start printing hard copy email to the homes without access. NO JUNK MAIL OR SPAM ALLOWED! If you don’t believe me look at china that is in the process of doing this now. Again we are being passed up by the rest of the world. . Just look at the Netherlands last year when their postal service privatized. Now they have 3 different postal companies. 1 delivers 1 day a week, 1 2 days a week and the last 3 days a week to half as many stops and many places have no mail at all. We need action right now before it's too late. Fire all management and let the crafts who work the mail manage our own peers. 7 billion 150 million a year for do nothing inbred micro-managers is insane MY FRIEND! I say fire everyone that doesn’t work the mail. Then we can even afford to drop a dime off of a stamp and deliver Sunday as well. It can be done!
Wow.........have the craft manage their peers?? Fire all management? Remember most management did work the mail at one time or another. Inbred micromanagers? How ignorant can you be........you, my friend, is what is wrong with the postal service.
A big problem that workers do not talk about because of fear of being disaplined is that there are far too many in management with much too much downtime.It is obvious that because of cell phones and computers most postmasters could manage 2 offices and still have downtime.
Most management DID NOT work the mail, and those that did certainly does not manage the postions they once had. Clerks managing carriers, mail handlers trying to manage carriers, etc. They have NO IDEA what the hell they are doing.
I loved that Burris retires before the most critical time in APWU history since 1970.all his lip when he is sittin' pretty with a union and csrs pension. He knew it was crunch time and he got off the ship first like a rat or cowardly captain of the ship. Just shut up already.
Foolish 5 day theory; Clerks will work 6 days putting mail at the carriers case, handlers will work 6 days to distribute mail at the carriers case, truck drivers and 100k a year supervisors will work 6 days. But the Carrier will work 5 days, be paid 42. per hour after 430pm, and 53.per hour after 630pm...and trust me carriers will be working 12-14 hour days when this happens, as we already work past 7pm..So more money less days ..
As a carrier I can attest to this, at least in the Seattle area. Every time we have a holiday fall on a Monday I get 2-3hrs of overtime on my own route on Tuesday. Partly because we are no longer allowed to delay the Advo/Redplum coverage but also because there is so much mail built up with the extra day off. I couldn't imagine dealing with this every single week. And of course in my "smaller" station we usually have to carry on other routes which pushes the OT even higher. I just don't see the cost savings of going to 5-day delivery.
This is what I mean by INBRED!The station manager was given his job at international station in Seattle Washington by his parents who both where high level EAS managers in Denver. This was his 1st job in the post office. Normally you have 20 years or more before you make it to this level. The father retired and the mother gave him a subcontracted outsourced job for the USPS. While getting a postal pension he is a civilian contractor doing mystery shopper surveys for his son’s station. You don't have to guess who got the most bonuses in Seattle. This is why if you lined up the 6 foot desks in a row of the 110,000 managers it would be 125 miles long. I say fire every single person that doesn’t work or support the mail stream. The savings from not having to do collective bargaining with these inbred thieves will pay for 3 more window clerks in every station nationwide. No more lines!!!
It is clear that most of America does not want to dismantle the Postal Service, but it appears that the TEAPUBLICANS in Congress, with the support of BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS, are going to GIFT AMERICA with just that.
America is being REINVENTED AND REMOLDED by a minority group of elected representatives that owe their allegiance to CORPORATE BILLIONAIRES whose only concern is to minimize their labor and benefit costs...and in the process they will get a shot at buying up the BONES of a national icon...THE USPS.
And all this will be done before our eyes with no chance for voter input until it's too late.
I worked for the Postal Service for 25 years from clerk to supv position. If the Postal Service were a private company, we would put people in charge who knew what they were doing in the area and could make money for the company. My experience was promote your friends or ones in the "group" regardless of what they knew. I felt at that time that would lead to the demise of the Postal Service so I left. I guess I was right.
The USPS has already eliminated between 20 to 25% of routes and carrier jobs without needing the permission of congress...there's nothing stopping them from doing that again to get to the numbers they want. So for the people that think they will be saving jobs by keeping saturday delivery, it's just not the case. If anything the NALC should try to get a deal to add routes or block any more route eliminations if saturday delivery ends. The offices that have gone to FSS cannot absorb the added daily volume of losing a delivery day.
I am a letter carrier and have no problem with Donahoes plan to lay off 220,000 people. BUT, I would like the layoffs to start at the top instead of the bottom. I am a letter carrier and I have 8 hours or more work every day. i have no idea what the three managers in my office are doing all day long when the 6 carriers they manage are out delivering mail. Yep, our office has 3 managers for 6 carriers. Last year Donahoe claimed he was letting go of 7500 manager jobs...the reality is that only 31 people left the service. the other 7469 were just moved into other jobs. It's a shell and pea game with postal management and they are about to eat the craft workers lunch if we let them. very sad
craft earn their money;mgmt. does not.
carriers will NOT be workin 12-14 hr days if 5 day happens. i have been carrying for 6 years and mail volume has declined so much even after saturday holidays its not what it used to be. mail used to be piled up it does not even compare now! keep your union views out of this discussion! clown! we had more mail 6 years ago after one day off than we do after 2 days off now.
Why is it that only management says the volume is dropping? If volume is dropping then why are management ranks growing? The only volume that is tropping is the volume of union craft workers. You must be a carrier in Nuckin Futz, Alabama.
I have been a letter carrier in Boca Raton Fla. for nearly 26 years I have seen what Management can do, and that is not much. Most people in Mgt. have not been letter Carriers or WAS a letter Carrier and couldn't cut it so they went int Mgt. to get the more pay and do less. We here in Boca have way to many Managers. I am againest doing away with Sat. delivery. Yes, we have less mail now but we have at least four Holidays on a Mondat, so when we come back on that Tues. we will have Sat., Sun.,Mon., and Tues. Mail to deliver in one day. It Is almost impossible to do in one day, when Mgt. wants everything to go every day, to make them look good. What the Post Office should do instead of stopping Sat. delivery, and still want to down size to save money is #1 Take that 6.9 billion that they will probably get back from over funding the fers fund and give an incentive to carriers to retire( you will be surprised how many would leave) and #2 Check your Post Offices and get rid of a lot of these Managers that just sit around and do nothing after the carriers hit the street. We;ve got way to many Managers. If anyone would like to e=mail me on this comment please feel free. My e-mail address is robert.strout@comcast.net Thank you
I recently spoke to a lady on my mail who worked at a distribution center and was distressed over the potential closing. I reminded her, in the past, she told me she didn't use the mail system. She sowed her own seed.
The postal service is a service, not intended to act like other companies. Merely a service for the people in America, we should make enough money to care for retirees, and all the actual injured employees, and that is ALL. Other companies salivate and want to buy us, because we do make money, THE USPS IS NOT BANKRUPT !!
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