Round One
The Senate passes S1789 to reform the Postal Service on a vote of 62 to 37, meeting the 60 vote requirement by Senate rule. Debate now commences on HR 2309. The House Committee and Subcommittee chairmen are Republicans and have expressed strong opposition to the union’s objectives. The Senate Bill includes the following:
- Refunds the retirement overpayment
- Restructures Health Benefit payment
- Requires arbitrators to consider USPS’ financial health
- Delays 5 day delivery
- Retirement incentives
- Delays change to Delivery Standards
- Establishes a process for the closing of facilities
- Changes FICA
- Medicare coordination
- Time limit on service changes
- Reduces compensation of top executives
In that 51 Senators are Democrats, to achieve the 62 vote total, 11 Republicans voted yes to approve. Senators McCain, Coburn and Paul offered negative amendments to:
- End mailbox monopoly
- Pilot privatization
- Prohibit collective bargaining
- Establish Postal Commission
- Require retirement eligible(s) to retire
- End monopoly
- Prohibit unions from using dues in political arena
HR 2309 will now be debated in the House which is Republican controlled and it has included provisions more negative to postal employees. After the House completes deliberations, members of the House and Senate will be appointed as conferees to resolve the differences between the House and Senate Bills. In that the Democrats have a majority in the Senate it is expected that the best opportunity at achieving the union’s objectives was in the Senate Bill that will not be improved in the House or the final Bill.
Bill Burrus
I sure wish my input to my U.S. Representative would help, but that person is Steve Womack (Arkansas), who immediately aligned with other GOP cretins like Michelle Bachmann, whom he has said many times he really admires, and totally supports the Paul Ryan budget that would basically kill the middle class and cater strictly to the filthy rich.
He is a dedicated union hater and although I’ve written or called his office several times it’s useless. The problem is his 3rd District, which is the northwest quarter or so of the state, is full of idiot rednecks who can’t read, worship Limbaugh and will only watch FOX News. The lone progressive outpost, Fayetteville, doesn’t have a large enough population to offset the racist evangelical goombahs who put job killer people like Womack in office.
The Benton County GOP, which is the richest county in the state thanks to Wal-Mart making its greedy home there, is all excited about an upcoming Lincoln Day dinner with Rick Santorum as guest speaker, or it has just recently taken place. I’ve been out of town for a few days and haven’t caught up on local news.
When Sarah Palin showed up at a Sam’s store in Fayetteville back when her book was being promoted, some of these morons camped out all night to get the chance to have her sign their book. I doubt most of them read it. They were just shitting all over themselves to have such a magnanimous person visit here. You can’t win with people like that.
Wake up Postal workers the political parties left or right liberal or conservative do not give a hoot about you the worker. All they ever care about is keeping all workers at each others throats so we do not notice what they are doing to us the worker. I retired in 2004 from Postal Service if there is a early buy out take it and never look back it will never get any better until they fix all the leaks in the system. Remember how many people around you do nothing but show up and union/management tries to get you to do their work as well as your own.
Jonesy u must be releated to Forrest; dumb is dumb does. Ride up the ladder. Jonesy
Decertify APWU all together! If you’re tired of ever changing contracts and self preservation on the part of union officials all at the expense of its lemmings, if you’re tired of your dues money going to pay for grand displays of BS which don’t help you, if you’re tired of settling for no raises while your union fights for larger lockers in your facility, if you’re tired of junior employees bumping senior miltary veteran employees all because they are stewards that spend time not working, filing grievances for larger lockers while you are excessed to Timbuctu…then the time has come to oust them! It’s either that or same ole same ole! Go to NLRB.gov to see how to decertify a union only interested in self-preservation!
JONESY FOR PRESIDENT !!
Cost effective 5 day delivery and closing small community office is necessary for USPS to exist without be subsidized. Decreasing revenue will continue as First class volume will to continue to decline. Social Security check will no longer be delivered by the postal service effective March 2013. Business advertise to go paperless and reward customers by doing so.The USPS maxedout in the 20th century. Advanced technology in communications in the 1st century has made the USPS a has been need with no future as the younger generation is computer savvy by age 5 and the babyboomer are now in the 65 range and time will eliminate this group. Electronic communicating is the means for Americans to communicate both hear and abroad.
Jonsey, huh? Dues go to APWU National and a portion is sent back to the locals. What does that have to do with going to the AFL/CIO? That follows no logical path. Even AFL/CIO affiliation does not equate to political contribution. The Union gives political contributions through COPA, not dues.
You sound more like one of those conspiracy theorists.
You guys found me out. I’m a complete trolling idiot who just got into the 204B program. Shucks.
The USPS has too much infrastructure, too many managers, too many craft employees, too much redundancy and waste, inferior technology that discourages customers from using postal services, too many brick and mortar structures and a business model conceived in the 1980’s for a pre-digital world. It all adds up to -$25M a day… bottom line.
S.1789 addresses some of these issues. It’s a start. It needs to become law and it’s mandates put into action. Then after 2 years, the workforce will have been downsized, the decisions on 5 or 6 day delivery can be made with more clarity, the issue of rural PO’s can be addressed with more evidence available. In short, the future of the USPS can be brought into greater focus and new actions by a future Congress can be made with greater certainty if we get moving on these present reforms.
IMO, the House will find a way to reconcile with the Senate on postal reform legislation sooner rather than later. This will happen because it’s an election year and doing nothing is bad politics for all those who must face the voters in less than 6 months. And make no mistake, the voters do care about their local post office.
Mr BB nailed it with this one, but when did the house pass 2309? I did’nt get that news? Well 99% of the house republicans probably wish they did’nt stand behind 2309 or even next to ross/issa who are by now covered in anti american slime. So 1789 goes to house and 2309 goes to senate? They form a committe to hash them out and both must pass it before it goes to Obama? My guess is if any part of 2309 is left in its gonna be vetoed. So America will be back to the stone age and the po will shut down thanks to slime buckets ross/issa who will then pocket billions from fedex/ups for a job not well done? Let me know when to start clapping!
“@Jonesy”…………………. REAL NAME IS DARRALL ISSA (R) CAL.
Jonesy what grade are you in?
ATTENTION…..DISCOVERED!!!!
“@Jonesy” is a TOTAL AND COMPLETE FRAUD.
This person is posting outrageous baloney and has been identified.
He is a TOOL TROLL….NOT THE “UNION” “LOCAL BUDGET COMMITTEE MEMBER” he claims to be….
ANOTHER FRAUD CLAIM THAT “UNION DUES” FIRST GO TO THE “AFL-CIO”….
IGNORE THIS CLOWN…..
NOW EXPOSED FOR WHAT HE IS….A TROLL TOOL POSTING FOR AN AGENDA DRIVEN PURPOSE…
WOW,
if I were a republican, i’d have to switch ASAP.
what’s wrong with them? are they not human? or perhaps just a few ruin it for the whole party! Now think about this my fellow postal workers, why in the world is congress messing with the emotions and lives of POSTAL WORKERS? Don’t they know us by now? Are they nuts messing with us? What if we all went POSTAL at the same time, we can take over the planet and rule the world.
the names have been changed to protect the innocent. some or all of these posts
may not be true some of the time or all the time.
Your right there Jonesy. And another thing. Government employees are proud to be Union workers. Republicans are proud to be Americans. Real union workers are in the private sector that work for a successful money making company.
I don’t belong to any political affiliation, but I do vote democratic most of the time. I am an unapologetic liberal with very pro labor / pro union views. I vote for what is in the best interest of labor and the common man. Republican postal workers are an oxymoron because the GOP/ Republicans Party are very anti labor / anti working man. I remember when Ronald Reagan bust unions in the early 80’s and things for the working man has been going down hill since. God help us all if a Republican wins the White House or take the Senate in 2012.
Franklin Roosevelt was against public sector unions.
Streetwalker, I have served on the budget committee for our local and I can tell you with absolute certainty that your dues do go to the democrat party via the AFL/CIO.
You see, the dues that are deducted from your check first go to the AFL/CIO, they in turn send your local a portion of that back, which allows your local officials to claim that “none of your dues go to political parties”, this is a cynical lie of omission and amounts to a money laundering scheme and should be covered under RICO stautes.
Sparrow, why then won’t your over botoxed girlfriend Nancy Pelosi let the hotel workers in the Pelosi owned hotels in California organize? Or the workers in the Pelosi vineyards?
Bag your BS moron and go play with your gayboy blogger PDXPat!
Sparrow, the PAEA could not have passed without the democrats voting for it, in mass in the senate. You can tell your lies all day long but that doesn’t make them true.
PDXPat, you sound like a total pussy and a gayboy so STFU loser!
It is true that all republicans are not anti union or anti post office, BUT all politicians who are anti union or anti post office are republicans.
You are absolutely right jonesy. The GOP is anti government union and anti collective bargaining and did hose the postal service by making it overfund the retirees healthcare fund. This is what caused the majority of the postal services problems. It is also why if you work for the postal service and you vote republican, then you are an idiot.
I’ve been a member of 3 unions (NALC since ’85) and NO union dues were ever used “for political reasons”. We have always taken up PAC money at union meetings or thru donations…..Like it or not, to play in Washington you have to PAY. More clerks and carriers need to be more politically aware….My congressman is a republican and the NALC donates to him, he votes about 80-85% pro-postal workers. We should all vote for those that protect our jobs…and if they agree with your own personal beliefs, all the better!
Jonesy,
You are a complete sell out idiot. Go vote with the GOP. Then shoot yourself, ok?
Hey mike folchetti – The GOP are anti GOVERNMENT Union, not private sector union…get your facts straight.
Government union employees like to paint themselves as the entire middle class…which is a joke at face value by the way, this enables weak minded people to believe that tripe coming from carnival barkers like mike here. It is no wonder the GOP is hostile toward the PO….OOOHHHHH vote all democrats all the time right goofball!
President Burrus – You note in passing that the legislation “requires arbitrator’s to consider the USPS financial health” what the law states is more along the lines of:
Section 106 – Arbitration; Labor Disputes
This section would require that arbitrators deciding a contract dispute between the Postal Service and one of its recognized unions take into consideration such relevant factors as the financial condition of the Postal Service…
That has always been the case has it not?
The USPS has always pled the financial issue in arbitration and the arbitrator was free to consider it – nothing in S-1789 binds the arbitator to those financials when making a decision regarding a wage package right?
R. Woods
Any working man voting republican is a fool.They dont have your best interests in mind.There anti-union and there tax cuts for the rich show you where there coming from.God bless us postal workers.There is enough unemployed already.Will we be joining them?
Early out is coming. Liteblue will be overwhelmed with retirements opm better be ready.
Every Postal Worker from New York to Hawaii, now is the time to contact your House of Represenative and Let them know it is an election year and they better vote for the Senate version of the Postal Reform Bill!
Its the best of the two Bills for Postal workers and the Post Office. Time is wasting and the bleeding continues!