[Excerpt] This week the Senate will debate and amend S. 1789, the 2Ist Century Postal Act, to address a crisis facing the United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS is an essential communications network and national asset that touches every household, business and community in your state. More than 7.5 million workers\u27 jobs and nearly a trillion dollars of the U.S. economy depend on this reliable institution

Samuel, William

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Labor Unions Key Workplace Documents 
4-23-2012 
Legislative Alert: The 21st Century Postal Act (S. 1789) 
William Samuel 
AFL-CIO 
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Legislative Alert: The 21st Century Postal Act (S. 1789) 
Abstract 
[Excerpt] This week the Senate will debate and amend S. 1789, the 2Ist Century Postal Act, to address a 
crisis facing the United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS is an essential communications network 
and national asset that touches every household, business and community in your state. More than 7.5 
million workers' jobs and nearly a trillion dollars of the U.S. economy depend on this reliable institution. 
Keywords 
AFL-CIO, Legislative Alert, 21st Century Postal Act, S. 1789 
Comments 
Suggested Citation 
Samuel, W. (2012, April 23). Legislative Alert: The 21st Century Postal Act (S. 1789). Washington, DC: AFL-
CIO. 
Required Publisher Statement 
Copyright by the AFL-CIO. Document posted with special permission by the copyright holder. 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/laborunions/126 
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8 1 5 SIXTEENTH STREET. N.W. 
WASHINGTON. D.C. 2 0 0 0 6 
(202) 637-5057 
MCHSBO L TRUMKA 
PRESIDENT 
ELIZABETH H. SMULER 
SECRETARY-TREASURER 
ARLENE HOLT BAKER 
EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT 
Dear Senator: 
April 23, 2012 
This week the Senate will debate and amend S. 1789, the 2Ist Century Postal Act, to 
address a crisis facing the United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS is an essential 
communications network and national asset that touches every household, business and 
community in your state. More than 7.5 million workers' jobs and nearly a trillion dollars of the 
U.S. economy depend on this reliable institution. 
On behalf of the AFL-CIO, we urge the Senate to reject measures in S. 1789 that will 
weaken this national resource, which every day delivers more than a half-billion cards, letters, 
magazines, prescription drug orders, e-commerce sales and mail-order packages to 150 million 
addresses, six days a week. At the same time, we enthusiastically endorse a number of 
amendments that will preserve high-quality services for the American people. A strong USPS is 
good for business and good for America. 
The AFL-CIO strongly opposes the McCain (#2001) amendment that would substitute 
FI.R. 2309, a draconian downsizing bill in the House that would destroy 200,000 jobs and 
dramatically reduce the quality of services. We urge you to vote against it. 
Our federation urges the Senate to adopt five amendments that are particularly important 
to our affiliates (NALC, APWU and LfUNA-NPMFIU) and the 500,000 workers they represent: 
the Akaka, Casey. Udall, Schumer and Tester amendments. 
Deliver}- Service Standards: The USPS is an integrated system of collecting, processing. 
sorting and delivering items. To ensure reliability, processing plants and post offices are vital and 
six-day delivery is essential. Currently, there is a Senate-inspired moratorium on closures and 
consolidations. There are several amendments that would preserve the standard of service 
America's households and businesses deserve: The Casey (#2042) amendment would ensure the 
maintenance of quality delivery service standards; the Udall (#2043) amendment would preserve 
six-day delivery; the Schumer (#2050) amendment would stop the proposed phase-out of door-
to-door delivery for 35 million American households and businesses that currently receive it; and 
the Tester (#2056) amendment would ensure increased accountability, community input and 
transparency for your constituents and businesses prior to the closing or consolidation of plants 
and post offices. 
Other amendments would damage service or threaten the viability of affordable universal 
service by weakening the USPS and opening America's mail boxes to unaccountable commercial 
providers. Such measures would allow competitors to selectively serve profitable areas and 
leave high-cost deliveries in rural states and economically disadvantaged urban areas to the 
USPS - thereby causing everybody's rates to rise. We, therefore, call on the Senate to reject the 
Paul amendments that repeal the mailbox statute (#2025) and authorize alternative delivery pilot 
tests (#2028). 
Workforce Issues: Our country has enjoyed more than 40 years of stable labor relations in the 
Postal Service. Steady productivity growth since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 has 
benefited mailers, workers and taxpayers. Both labor and management have developed this 
system with care and diligence. It has allowed the Postal Service to offer high quality service at 
the most affordable postage rates in the world, while saving U.S. taxpayers more than $100 
billion in subsidies that existed before Postal Reorganization. 
There are several amendments that would attack the collective bargaining rights of postal 
employees, undermine the representation of postal employees, or force postal workers to retire 
involuntarily. In particular, the AFL-CIO opposes the following amendments: Paul #2039, 
DeMint #2046, and Coburn #2061. 
The AFL-CIO strongly supports the Akaka amendment (# 2034) that strengthens the 
Federal Employee Compensation Act by replacing the punitive reforms in S. 1789 with a 
bipartisan bill enacted by the House. 
One remaining item of major concern to the AFL-CIO is the unique and onerous mandate 
placed on the Postal Service to make huge annual payments to a retiree health benefit fund. This 
has cost the USPS $21 billion and accounted for 84% of its reported losses in recent years. No 
other company or agency in America faces such a mandate. While partly addressed in the 
managers' substitute to S. 1789, it remains an overwhelming and unnecessary burden on the 
Postal Service. Returning the $11 billion FERS overpayment as proposed by the bill, which 
nearly everyone agrees is the right thing to do, will not compensate for this annual burden. The 
better solution is to implement the results of independent audits of the postal account in the 
CSRS pension fund and let the USPS cover its future liability for retiree health with the postal 
surplus in CSRS. Unfortunately, that solution was dropped from earlier versions of S. 1789. 
The Postal Service is a national treasure mandated by the Constitution that serves an 
essential function to our country and its economy. We urge you to take urgent action to save this 
uniquely American institution. 
Sincerely,^ 
William Samuel, Director 
Government Affairs Department 


Legislative Alert: The 21st Century Postal Act (S. 1789)

[Excerpt] This week the Senate will debate and amend S. 1789, the 2Ist Century Postal Act, to address a crisis facing the United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS is an essential communications network and national asset that touches every household, business and community in your state. More than 7.5 million workers' jobs and nearly a trillion dollars of the U.S. economy depend on this reliable institution.afl_cio_Legsilative_Act_Postal_Act_AmendmentOCR.pdf: 14 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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Legislative Alert: The 21st Century Postal Act (S. 1789)

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