Back to the Future
Recently I was visited by a good friend and retiree called the General from my home station. He gave me old Branch papers that he had found from 1977. The Branch paper back then was called the RAP OUT not the LIMB. Branch 1655 represented the carriers from Garden City, Smithtown-Hauppauge, New Hyde Park and Huntington Station.
Let us go back to the future and see what life was like for a letter carrier in 1977. As I looked through the RAP OUT, I was astonished to read article after article and how things really have not changed for the letter carrier since then. So, let’s go back to the future and see what struggles the letter carrier had back then. The President’s report talks about Postal Reform H.R. 7700 coming up for a vote in Congress. National negotiations are approaching and some key issues will be job security, pay and fringe benefits (health benefits), retention of the cost of living, improved working conditions and a complete overhaul of the grievance procedure. Our retirement system is facing a great threat from the House Ways & Means Subcommittee. They voted 6 to 2 to phase out our Civil Service Retirement System and put us under Social Security (which they did in the 80’s). The November COLA raise is at $187.00 with three months to go, looks like we may receive about $325.00 in November.
From the Ex. VP: propaganda coming out from L’Enfant Plaza is of the opinion that we have passed comparability with our outside counterparts and are well paid for our services. That the average carrier makes around $17,500 per year and that a clerk averages salary is $18,000 per year. So, I guess we are in for another battle at the bargaining table. If the post office really is out to save money, they would put an end to this fiasco they call route checks. The six-day delivery seems safe for now. However, I don’t believe the post office intends to drop it completely. I’m pretty sure the post office will raise this issue once again in the future. The post office plans on closing the smaller post offices and reducing some services again. At the Committee of Presidents meeting some of the topics discussed were upcoming negotiations, lawn crossing and the firing of some of our brother unionists for their union activities.
HR 7700 the Postal Service Act of 1977 has been delayed because Congress is waiting on President Carter’s position on USPS. The picture has indeed brightened with the President of the U.S. agreeing to meet with the heads of Postal Labor. However, as of this column we have only the support of Congressmen Downey and Addabbo on H.R. 7700. I believe the time has come for each member to write his congressmen on H.R. 7700. We still need support our future is at stake, write your congressmen today! Possibly before this membership reads this article Congressman Nix will introduce the six-day delivery bill. In closing I would like to bring to the branches attention that there are many bills pending which affect our jobs in many areas. As always, I will need your support and help if the goals we seek are to be achieved.
With that said, you can see Congress has been attacking us for a very long time. Six-day delivery, trying to do away with the COLA’S (Cost of living adjustment), Postal Reform, salaries, reducing services, lawn crossing, route inspections, job security, etc., these are some of the issues that the letter carrier has been facing for a very longtime from Congress. That is why it is very important that we contribute to the LETTER CARRIERS POLITICAL FUND. How many of you know what this is? The LETTER CARRIERS POLITICAL FUND is donations from carriers that are used to help Congressmen and Congresswomen get elected or re-elected to office that will support the letter carriers fight. These donations cannot come from union funds or dues they have to be from individual carriers. We have to lobby our friends in Congress to represent the letter carrier. Other private sectors that want to dismantle or slice and dice the USPS give contributions to Congress representatives that will support their issue to privatize the USPS in their favor. You know that old saying: MONEY TALKS AND BULL SHI_ WALKS.
So why won’t you give a dollar a week or two bucks a pay period to protect your job, your future and your family? As I go and do station visits in the morning, I see what the carriers order just for breakfast, some have a coffee truck (roach coach) pull up to the office, some have a waitress from a local coffee shop taking food orders, some go to 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts or a deli etc. Why would you be willing to spend anywhere between 5 and 10 bucks a day on breakfast but not willing to give a buck or two a pay period (10 days) to protect yourself and family? So, give up that bacon egg and cheese sandwich with a large coffee once a week and just get a buttered bagel and regular coffee and you would have saved enough money to contribute to the LETTER CARRIERS POLITICAL FUND. Is that that hard to do? Without this job you won’t have to worry about breakfast, lunch or dinner because you won’t have any money to buy it!
It is very easy to sign up for the LETTER CARRIERS POLITICAL FUND. All you have to do is speak to your full-time officer or call the office 631-789-1616 and speak to Editor Joe Morelli who is also the Chairman of the LETTER CARRIERS POLITICAL FUND and he will help you to accomplish this. I would hate to go back to the future 20 years from now and see what we lost because we were too busy ordering breakfast and not paying attention on what bills Congress passed to make our jobs harder with less benefits and less pay and no job security with no COLA’S! That is even if we still have a post office. The choice is yours my brothers and sisters!
Please fly your American flag on Memorial Day May 27th in honor of our fallen military!
