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President's Report (August 2009)
Dear APWU Sisters and Brothers,
I hope you are all having a great summer, but I guess that’s a little
silly on my part. Given the lousy weather and the lousy management
we’ve had to contend with, I seriously doubt anyone is really having a great summer.
They are hell bent on destroying the best postal service
in the world, and they seem so proud to be tearing down the service we
all helped to build. Actually, before it became their goal to
privatize the postal service, some of those people on the dark side
(management) wanted us to be successful.
The real goal of the postal service used to be to deliver to every
home, every day. To provide a service to the American people that has
been unequaled by any other entity. No other government agency has
earned the degree of trust, reliability, honesty, confidentiality and
integrity that the postal service has garnered in over 200 years of
service to our country. Not for profit, my good brothers and sisters.
Not for glory. Just a real belief that we service every home in
America, every single day.
The Postal Service is doing a disservice to our entire country. Making
customers stand in long lines while refusing to staff our windows
properly, removing thousands of collection boxes from service, and
encouraging our customers to go elsewhere is no way to strengthen our
position in the real world of delivery service. Cutting hours and
closing stations and branches do not increase revenue. Cutting a day
of delivery service won’t get us much customer support .When was the
last time you heard of a store deciding to open later, close earlier,
and reduce sales people in order to build their business? We need to
continue to make the public see what is happening to their postal
service. It is only with their participation that we can prevail.
I was very disappointed with a recent statement by President Obama
concerning the post office, and talking about private businesses being
better able to compete in the marketplace. Sure, anyone can make a
buck by doing inter-city and intra state carriage of first class mail.
But let’s see them deliver to Death Valley, California, from Peaks
Island in Portland Maine for the same low price of forty four cents,
and forward it to Hartford Connecticut at no additional charge. I
don’t think the president meant to be harsh, but I do think he went
for a cheap laugh at our expense. And he wasn’t really wrong. However,
he should point the finger at postal management, who are the real
culprits here. You just can’t continue to give the private sector
mailers the deep discounts that exceed the savings they are supposed
to create. If it saves a penny, and costs a dime, we lose nine cents.
And that creates a glut of minimum wage jobs that do absolutely
nothing to strengthen the economy. The postal service management
continues to cut decent living wage jobs to the detriment of every
community they used to service so well. When people lose these jobs,
they no longer contribute to their local merchants, restaurants, or Mom & Pop stores. The Postal Service is doing a disservice to our entire country.
How soon the politicians who were singing our praises for continuing to work through the anthrax crisis, have forgotten. Somehow, on a very
small scale, I can relate better to our veterans in homeless shelters.
To our vets who seek medical and psychiatric help from those whom they
have served so well. Let’s help those politicians who have such
convenient memory loss as to who helped elect them to do the right
thing remember who we are, and what we’ve done. We now need them to
help save our service. And let us not forget Moe Biller, the late dean
of the American Labor Movement, who said it so well. “THE STRUGGLE
CONTINUES”
In Solidarity,
Art MacNeil
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Legislative Directors Report…By Don Sheehan
CALLING THEIR BLUFF
Status quo is probably the most powerful force in Washington. Status quo always seems to benefit large industries like the insurance industry and it is quite obvious that dollars chase influence in the recent health care debate. Influence peddling is now going on in every Congressional office. Key lawmakers have seen a surge in campaign donations over the last three or four months. Drug makers, doctors, insurers and hospitals have opened their wallets, spending more than $1 million a day to buy a voice in the political battle over what could be the broadest revamp of healthcare laws in decades.
Insurance companies and related groups topped all spending on federal lobbying in the second quarter of the year, forking over a total of $133 million in April, May and June to push their agenda with Congress. The reason for spending millions of dollars and sending armies of lobbyists to influence the debate with lawmakers is that proposed health care legislation would dramatically change the way they do business. Money provides access and access is the name of the game in Washington. Money gets you a seat at the table to make suggestions and try to eliminate things you don't like in a piece of legislation.
At the beginning of the health care debate it was hoped that lawmakers could come up with legislation that would rein in costs, improve care and expand coverage to most of the 46 million uninsured Americans. The lobbyists for the insurance companies have worked very hard to keep the status quo going. Because of buying influence, the health care lobbies have many Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress crying out against a publicly funded health care option. Yep, believe it or not, some legislators have been bought. These legislators are not even for a modified piece of public health care legislation; they have been bought off to vote against any type of publicly funded health care legislation!
Hmmm, lets see, they are against any type of publicly funded health care initiative. Really? You're against government-funded health care? Want to go on the record with that position? Care to vote to kill Medicare? That’s right…kill Medicare!
In case you missed it, I wanted to share a GREAT “put up or shut up” legislative move used by a Congressman from New York. Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York decided to force everyone in Congress to think about what life would be like without a very popular, already existing, publicly funded health insurance plan.
Congressman Weiner introduced an amendment in late July that would eliminate Medicare. Yes, eliminate Medicare. Of course, Congressman Weiner didn't actually want Medicare to be eliminated but he did want to force every conservative Republican and Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to have to go on the record with their position on the government-run health plan upon which 43 million American voters rely. The fact of the matter is that government administered health care works pretty damn well (Medicare, Veterans Administration, Military Health Care etc.). It's got lower overhead and people like it.
When Republican and conservative Democrat members of Congress pounded the drum and the podium about how they hate government-run health care, Congressman Weiner called their bluff and introduced the amendment on the 44th anniversary of the creation of Medicare (its called irony). The amendment got zero votes. I tip my hat to the Congressman from New York for calling their bluff. Although symbolic and meant to prove a point, it was one of the sharpest legislative moves I’ve ever seen and exposed them ALL for what they are…(you can fill in the blank)!
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