A white paper released July 22 by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the US Postal Service provides a menu of options for sweeping austerity measures against postal workers and the public. While rank-and-file postal workers urgently need to organize to save the post office, the union bureaucracy is moving to block action.
Just over two weeks after the release of the strategy document delegates to the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) convention voted down two resolutions calling for a campaign to restore the right to strike by 2,583–694. The vote occurred as union officials prepared to submit the next contract to binding arbitration.
On the convention’s final day, USPS reported a $2.5 billion third-quarter loss and Postmaster General David Steiner warned that without congressional action, the agency’s “plans would certainly have to entail changes that will impact service,” including closing “thousands of unprofitable post offices” and raising prices. Revenue nevertheless rose 6.1 percent and the controllable loss narrowed as USPS eliminated another 4 million work hours and deferred $1.4 billion in pension contributions.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the NALC lost its way, but it has. They’re good in some areas of the country at filing grievances, but too many offices are left out there alone with no representation. They can’t seem to get the USPS to follow the contract or even stop management from stealing time by deleting clock rings. The harassment is worse than ever, but they do little on a national level to stop it. Probably the worst thing is that they’re too cozy with upper management, way too cozy, spouting the USPS party line about borrowing ability and crap like that. You’ll never hear anything about how there’s too many managers, too much wasted money, and incompetent supervisors, and I mean never. The NALC needs to be more aggressive. It shouldn’t be Congress telling the American people about bonuses, it should have been the NALC front and center.
why would NALC vote against striking??
Shouldn’t that be a vote from it’s members!!!!
They are all crooks!!!!