Nashville APWU Legislation

APWU Legislative Priorities Edition 2023 now available

Click the image to download the Legislative Priorities PDF file. Learn more about the Social Security Faireness and Expansion Acts, the Equal COLA Act, the USPS Shipping Equity act, and more.

Legislative Report April 2015

By Legislative Director Mike Mingo

Our National has focused on legislative issues mostly concerning HR 54 and also with a lot of emphasis on the Free Trade issues. HR 54 that deals with plant closures and delivery standards are devastating to the quality of service that postal customers expect and deserve. The Free Trade issues going back to the first one implemented were devastating to the job markets in the United States, with many good paying jobs lost to foreign countries that pays very low wages.
I was particularly glad to see President Dimondstein’s remark on the hypocrisy concerning the past Postmaster Donahoe’s statement in regards to retirement for new hire’s. Donahoe stated that the Congress of the United States should basically do away with retirement for all new federal employees starting with the postal service as a test case. This takes place when Donahoe retires with a 4 million dollar retirement package, how much of a hypocrite can you be?
What I don’t see come out of the National office is another reaching attack on postal employees being perpetuated by the Republican Congress. On March 25th by a vote of 219 to 208 the House passed approved a budget bill that hits the FERS contributions, the Thrift Savings Plan, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.
FERS, in this bill would require a 6 percent contribution to the plan, FERS covered employees currently contribute 0.8 percent
The budget bill proposes to lower the interest rate earned on the G fund, a fund that currently is applied to short term Treasury Securities. Since its inception in 1987 the fund has averaged 5.43 percent and the proposed bill would limit the interest paid to 0.01 percent.
The House in this bill would also replace the current FEHB program with a contribution formula with a fixed dollar voucher. This would be adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index. Presently the employer contribution is based upon the weighted average premium of all FEHB plans, this results in adjusting employee contributions according to health care inflation. This would place the burden of approximately 127 billion dollars over the next decade on the backs of federal and postal employees. There is a second proposal that would impact FEHB premium contributions by using a longevity based formula to determine retiree health plan contributions. The final issue in this bill would be to base the postal employee’s share of their health premiums to be the same as that of federal employees. This would impact postal employees covered by collective bargaining agreements by requiring them to pay a greater contribution level.
This would also propose a change in frequency and type of delivery by the postal service. This would probably be considered as a means to moving towards 5 day delivery and a move to centralized or curbside delivery.
The Senate is also considering its budget bill, Senate Concurrent Resolution 11. Over 640 amendments are attached to this bill and a vote is expected on about one quarter of them. Significant cuts to postal employee’s benefits are expected to occur in this measure but these cuts have not yet been identified.

___________________________________________________________________________________

WANT YOUR JOB?
By Mike Mingo

I want to thank the Nashville Tennessee Local for sending me to the Tri-State and the State Convention. The meetings were very informative and I had the opportunity to meet John Marcotti, the new National Legislative Director. John impressed me as a person that was highly motivated and talented, and I look forward to his leadership in the legislative arena in the years to come. I am also grateful to John for providing me with the power point presentation that enables me to provide you with the latest information available.

There is some pending Legislation that is non-postal but does have side effects that will be of interest and concern to many of our Brothers and Sisters. HR.380 known as Fast Track Legislation is a bill that links eleven (11) nations into a Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is another so called free trade agreement that does nothing but once again leave behind working families. This is another way of taking away good high paying jobs from our fellow Americans and creating additional trade deficits for the United States. I personally call this a fast track to additional poverty.

Minimum Wage once again faces trouble in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate Bill being held up by Senate Republicans will likely in the future see passage, but faces strong opposition in the House. My personal feelings are that every American deserves the right to a living wage, a wage where no one needs to go hungry or gives up medication or other necessities to just survive.

Some of the most important people in my life are the Hero’s that have served our country in both war and peace. These are the men and women who have given their all to protect our way of life. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice while others have given so much of themselves for their country. Yet, Senate Republicans block legislation that would expand healthcare and education programs for these Veterans that have served us so well. Shame on You!

I will give you a summary of Legislation that can affect you as Postal Employees and also as retired members of the Postal Service. The APWU supports the Senate Bill S.316 which is the Postal Service Protection Act and opposes the House Bill HR.1486 proposed by Darrell Issa (R-CA). There are three (3) bills in the House that we do support, HR.630 which is the counterpart to the Postal Service Protection Act in the Senate. We support HR.961, The United States Postal Service Stabilization Act and also HR.2459 which is The Protect Overnight Delivery Act. We vehemently oppose HR.2748 which is the Postal Reform Act of 2013. (This bill has already passed the committee.)

The Bills that we favor HR.630 and S.316 was referred to The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR).
These Bills would;
Eliminate the pre-funding mandate to the federal retirement system.
Refund overpayments the USPS made to the federal retirement system.
Re-establish overnight standards for first class mail.
Allow USPS to develop new products and services that generates new sources of income, and gives the Postal Authority the authority to prevent post office closures based on the effects on the community and employees.
HR 961 was introduced by Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and requires the Office of Personnel Management to;
Recalculate the Postal Service’s liabilities to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), using specific and demographic assumptions.
Refund overpayments the Postal Service made to the Federal Employee’s Retirement Account.
Expresses the intent of Congress that postal specific assumptions should apply to allocations of past, present, and future benefit liabilities between the USPS and the Treasury.
HR. 2549 by Representative Rosa DeLauro basically re-affirms the position of the APWU on the bills that we support in the House and the Senate.

Once again, we strongly oppose the bill put forth by a member of the House, the one I consider the devil in disguise, Darrell Issa (R-CA). Darrell Issa’s Legislation HR.2748 would;
Prohibit USPS and unions from negotiating protections against lay-offs.
Increase employee health insurance costs and force retired employees into Medicare A, B, and D.
Slashes Compensation for injured employees with dependants and force them into retirement.
Imposes 2-3 day service for first class mail.
Closure of additional Post Offices, Stations, Branches, and Mail processing Facilities.
Prevents the Public from appealing these closures if a contract postal unit is within two miles.
Creates “competition advocates” to promote contracting out.
Maintains limits on postage rate increases, preventing increased revenue for the Postal Service.
APWU also opposes S.1486, a Bill introduced by Senator Carper (D-DE) and Senator Coburn (R-OK). This Bill is in all respects another bill that places the Postal Service in dire jeopardy. This Bill is in all respects the same type of language that Representative Darrell Issa proposes in the House, you can change the language, but you can’t hide the intent.

Want your job? Want your benefits? Please write and/or call your members of Congress, let them know what we support and what we oppose.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
By Mike Mingo

The Holidays are now past and my wish is that you had a happy and cheerful holiday season with many more to come. My hope and prayers go out to the members of our armed forces with the hope that they return home safe and sound, especially those that serve in areas of conflict. Our Prayers certainly go out to our wounded warriors that have returned from these areas of conflict.
We pass another year without any meaningful postal legislation to be brought forth from a do nothing Congress that seems to show no initiative to solve the problems of the postal service. As I write this article, the Postal service for the past two years is on a collision course to lose more than twenty billion dollars due to past actions of this Congress. The requirement to prefund retirement issues 75 years in advance, at the directions of Congress, is nothing more than an attempt to destroy a service that is so necessary to our nation.
We do have concerns over the pushed back bills that were introduced in the Senate this past summer. We are looking at issues that are detrimental both to our customers and to the employees of our postal service. This Bill proposed by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla) proposes legislation that destroys our benefits along with the intended demise of our service. We do have some members in the Senate that state there are dozens of issues with this bill and hopefully any changes will be favorable to our union and to the postal service as a whole. Please keep your eyes open for any Senate Legislation that is injurious to the wellbeing of our members, I expect legislation to be soon forthcoming.
I have stated before that there is a devil in Congress and he makes no bones about it, Darrell Issa (R-CA), a member of the House of Representatives, is out to destroy the postal service. He is by far the most dangerous politician that postal workers have encountered in the history of our service and we need to make every effort to negate the proposals he submitted in (H.R. 2748). We as union members also oppose the Postal Services plans to contract our window work to Staples, an office supply store that has over 1600 stores available to take our work. Our National President has stated that these offices “must be staffed by career employees”. This is nothing more than another attempt by the Postal Service to contract out work to people that make minimum wage, or at the most, very low paying jobs. We must keep ourselves aware of all these issues, including awareness of Managements attempts to downsize by cutting service standards, closing of rural post offices, and attempts to cut six day delivery. We need to be aware of Legislation to stop most delivery and cutting carrier jobs by setting up neighborhood cluster boxes. These measures would eliminate jobs when there is a need to have more employment rather than less, and the need to keep a robust economy that is just now started n the road to recovery.
Please keep your eyes opened for any news on your bulletin boards for any current Legislation, and please contact your Representatives when the need arises.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

.

	APWU Legislative Priorities Edition 2023 now available Click the image to download the Legislative Priorities PDF file. Learn more about the Social Security Faireness and Expansion Acts, the Equal COLA Act, the USPS Shipping Equity act, and more. Legislative Report April 2015 By Legislative Director Mike Mingo Our National has focused on legislative issues mostly concerning HR 54 and also with a lot of emphasis on the Free Trade issues. HR 54 that deals with plant closures and delivery standards are devastating to the quality of service that postal customers expect and deserve. The Free Trade issues going back to the first one implemented were devastating to the job markets in the United States, with many good paying jobs lost to foreign countries that pays very low wages. I was particularly glad to see President Dimondstein’s remark on the hypocrisy concerning the past Postmaster Donahoe’s statement in regards to retirement for new hire’s. Donahoe stated that the Congress of the United States should basically do away with retirement for all new federal employees starting with the postal service as a test case. This takes place when Donahoe retires with a 4 million dollar retirement package, how much of a hypocrite can you be? What I don’t see come out of the National office is another reaching attack on postal employees being perpetuated by the Republican Congress. On March 25th by a vote of 219 to 208 the House passed approved a budget bill that hits the FERS contributions, the Thrift Savings Plan, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. FERS, in this bill would require a 6 percent contribution to the plan, FERS covered employees currently contribute 0.8 percent The budget bill proposes to lower the interest rate earned on the G fund, a fund that currently is applied to short term Treasury Securities. Since its inception in 1987 the fund has averaged 5.43 percent and the proposed bill would limit the interest paid to 0.01 percent. The House in this bill would also replace the current FEHB program with a contribution formula with a fixed dollar voucher. This would be adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index. Presently the employer contribution is based upon the weighted average premium of all FEHB plans, this results in adjusting employee contributions according to health care inflation. This would place the burden of approximately 127 billion dollars over the next decade on the backs of federal and postal employees. There is a second proposal that would impact FEHB premium contributions by using a longevity based formula to determine retiree health plan contributions. The final issue in this bill would be to base the postal employee’s share of their health premiums to be the same as that of federal employees. This would impact postal employees covered by collective bargaining agreements by requiring them to pay a greater contribution level. This would also propose a change in frequency and type of delivery by the postal service. This would probably be considered as a means to moving towards 5 day delivery and a move to centralized or curbside delivery. The Senate is also considering its budget bill, Senate Concurrent Resolution 11. Over 640 amendments are attached to this bill and a vote is expected on about one quarter of them. Significant cuts to postal employee’s benefits are expected to occur in this measure but these cuts have not yet been identified. ___________________________________________________________________________________ WANT YOUR JOB? By Mike Mingo I want to thank the Nashville Tennessee Local for sending me to the Tri-State and the State Convention. The meetings were very informative and I had the opportunity to meet John Marcotti, the new National Legislative Director. John impressed me as a person that was highly motivated and talented, and I look forward to his leadership in the legislative arena in the years to come. I am also grateful to John for providing me with the power point presentation that enables me to provide you with the latest information available. There is some pending Legislation that is non-postal but does have side effects that will be of interest and concern to many of our Brothers and Sisters. HR.380 known as Fast Track Legislation is a bill that links eleven (11) nations into a Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is another so called free trade agreement that does nothing but once again leave behind working families. This is another way of taking away good high paying jobs from our fellow Americans and creating additional trade deficits for the United States. I personally call this a fast track to additional poverty. Minimum Wage once again faces trouble in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate Bill being held up by Senate Republicans will likely in the future see passage, but faces strong opposition in the House. My personal feelings are that every American deserves the right to a living wage, a wage where no one needs to go hungry or gives up medication or other necessities to just survive. Some of the most important people in my life are the Hero’s that have served our country in both war and peace. These are the men and women who have given their all to protect our way of life. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice while others have given so much of themselves for their country. Yet, Senate Republicans block legislation that would expand healthcare and education programs for these Veterans that have served us so well. Shame on You! I will give you a summary of Legislation that can affect you as Postal Employees and also as retired members of the Postal Service. The APWU supports the Senate Bill S.316 which is the Postal Service Protection Act and opposes the House Bill HR.1486 proposed by Darrell Issa (R-CA). There are three (3) bills in the House that we do support, HR.630 which is the counterpart to the Postal Service Protection Act in the Senate. We support HR.961, The United States Postal Service Stabilization Act and also HR.2459 which is The Protect Overnight Delivery Act. We vehemently oppose HR.2748 which is the Postal Reform Act of 2013. (This bill has already passed the committee.) The Bills that we favor HR.630 and S.316 was referred to The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR). These Bills would; Eliminate the pre-funding mandate to the federal retirement system. Refund overpayments the USPS made to the federal retirement system. Re-establish overnight standards for first class mail. Allow USPS to develop new products and services that generates new sources of income, and gives the Postal Authority the authority to prevent post office closures based on the effects on the community and employees. HR 961 was introduced by Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and requires the Office of Personnel Management to; Recalculate the Postal Service’s liabilities to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), using specific and demographic assumptions. Refund overpayments the Postal Service made to the Federal Employee’s Retirement Account. Expresses the intent of Congress that postal specific assumptions should apply to allocations of past, present, and future benefit liabilities between the USPS and the Treasury. HR. 2549 by Representative Rosa DeLauro basically re-affirms the position of the APWU on the bills that we support in the House and the Senate. Once again, we strongly oppose the bill put forth by a member of the House, the one I consider the devil in disguise, Darrell Issa (R-CA). Darrell Issa’s Legislation HR.2748 would; Prohibit USPS and unions from negotiating protections against lay-offs. Increase employee health insurance costs and force retired employees into Medicare A, B, and D. Slashes Compensation for injured employees with dependants and force them into retirement. Imposes 2-3 day service for first class mail. Closure of additional Post Offices, Stations, Branches, and Mail processing Facilities. Prevents the Public from appealing these closures if a contract postal unit is within two miles. Creates “competition advocates” to promote contracting out. Maintains limits on postage rate increases, preventing increased revenue for the Postal Service. APWU also opposes S.1486, a Bill introduced by Senator Carper (D-DE) and Senator Coburn (R-OK). This Bill is in all respects another bill that places the Postal Service in dire jeopardy. This Bill is in all respects the same type of language that Representative Darrell Issa proposes in the House, you can change the language, but you can’t hide the intent. Want your job? Want your benefits? Please write and/or call your members of Congress, let them know what we support and what we oppose. _____________________________________________________________________________________ LEGISLATIVE ISSUES By Mike Mingo The Holidays are now past and my wish is that you had a happy and cheerful holiday season with many more to come. My hope and prayers go out to the members of our armed forces with the hope that they return home safe and sound, especially those that serve in areas of conflict. Our Prayers certainly go out to our wounded warriors that have returned from these areas of conflict. We pass another year without any meaningful postal legislation to be brought forth from a do nothing Congress that seems to show no initiative to solve the problems of the postal service. As I write this article, the Postal service for the past two years is on a collision course to lose more than twenty billion dollars due to past actions of this Congress. The requirement to prefund retirement issues 75 years in advance, at the directions of Congress, is nothing more than an attempt to destroy a service that is so necessary to our nation. We do have concerns over the pushed back bills that were introduced in the Senate this past summer. We are looking at issues that are detrimental both to our customers and to the employees of our postal service. This Bill proposed by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla) proposes legislation that destroys our benefits along with the intended demise of our service. We do have some members in the Senate that state there are dozens of issues with this bill and hopefully any changes will be favorable to our union and to the postal service as a whole. Please keep your eyes open for any Senate Legislation that is injurious to the wellbeing of our members, I expect legislation to be soon forthcoming. I have stated before that there is a devil in Congress and he makes no bones about it, Darrell Issa (R-CA), a member of the House of Representatives, is out to destroy the postal service. He is by far the most dangerous politician that postal workers have encountered in the history of our service and we need to make every effort to negate the proposals he submitted in (H.R. 2748). We as union members also oppose the Postal Services plans to contract our window work to Staples, an office supply store that has over 1600 stores available to take our work. Our National President has stated that these offices “must be staffed by career employees”. This is nothing more than another attempt by the Postal Service to contract out work to people that make minimum wage, or at the most, very low paying jobs. We must keep ourselves aware of all these issues, including awareness of Managements attempts to downsize by cutting service standards, closing of rural post offices, and attempts to cut six day delivery. We need to be aware of Legislation to stop most delivery and cutting carrier jobs by setting up neighborhood cluster boxes. These measures would eliminate jobs when there is a need to have more employment rather than less, and the need to keep a robust economy that is just now started n the road to recovery. Please keep your eyes opened for any news on your bulletin boards for any current Legislation, and please contact your Representatives when the need arises. _____________________________________________________________________________________ .			Don Eggers APWU Legislative Director