Whereas, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as a right of the people, the public Post Office has provided universal postal service over many generations, and is continuously rated as the most highly regarded government entity by the American people. Since the 1970 postal strike, which shut down mail service nationwide for four days, postal workers have had good liveable-wage jobs supporting their families in every community, and collective bargaining through their unions; and
Whereas, Postmaster General Donahue wants to eliminate Saturday delivery, shut 3,700 postal facilities, and fire 120,000 workers [220,000 by 2015], despite a no-layoff clause in union contracts. Rep. Issa, chair of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, wants to void the postal union contracts altogether and open the door to privatization. Their proposals would sabotage and destroy our national treasure – the public Postal Service; and
Whereas, the scheduled service cutbacks will hit seniors, and poor and rural communities the hardest. For example, post offices are being tagged for closing based on the amount of “revenue” they generate, which means that low-income and rural areas, which need their neighborhood post office the most, will no longer have one. Also collection boxes with fewer letters are being removed, hurting service in low-income and rural areas; and
Whereas, just as Governor Scott Walker declared war on Wisconsin workers, what’s coming is a war against the 574,000 unionized postal workers and their families – the next target of the big business class and their henchmen in Congress and the media. Like Reagan’s attack on PATCO, this is an attack on all of Labor, and Labor needs to close ranks with every community now to defend the postal unions and save the public Postal Service.
Therefore be it Resolved, that Golden Gate Branch 214 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, calls on the four postal unions and each of their locals and state associations – as well as central labor bodies and state labor federations in every part of the country, other national and local unions, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win federation, and community allies – to organize a coordinated national and local campaign including mass demonstrations to defend the postal workers, save Saturday delivery, stop the post office closings and layoffs, and save the public Postal Service.
Resolution adopted by NALC Branch 214, at the regular membership meeting on September 7, 2011, in San Francisco, California, by unanimous vote.
Postal workers marching, Detroit, August 2010.
http://www.apwu.org/index2.htm
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