Comments on: Local hunger strikers to protest Congress starving the USPS

By: Myra

Myra — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 01:49:07 +0000

The long-winded double-talk in the above three entrys is a desperate attempt by a right-wing union buster to deny the reality of the article. All one has to do to is look at the CORPORATIST LEGISLATORS AND LOBBYISTS WHO SNEAKED THIS POISON PILL LEGISLATION THROUGH a few years ago.

By: pinbalwyz

pinbalwyz — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 07:39:15 +0000

BTW, the argumentative premise cited above isn’t far fetched given the tale USPS management spooked the APWU membership by threatening to file for bankruptcy and abandon ALL its contractual obligations (including pension and health care funding) through that legal device. Given the use of this threat so recently, why wouldn’t any prudent postal working stiff want their retirement benefits PRE-FUNDED? Management already threatened to put all postal employees at risk–why would you trust them? Of course you should want the $ pre-funded where management cannot renege on its obligations. Workers should count their blessing the U.S. Congress had the foresight to insist on pre-funding to avoid such a calamity. While it’s true that ‘no other company has to pre-fund its obligations like the USPS has been mandated’, it’s also true that the US Treasury is uniquely responsible for paying those retirement obligations to postal workers–quasi government employees. Private companies may not have to pre-fund to the extent the USPS must, but they also routinely file for bankruptcy and leave their pensioners holding the bag. Pre-funded USPS employee retirement benefits avoids this loophole for management perfidy. By demanding the U.S. Congress relieve the USPS of its pre-funding obligations to retirees, the APWU has abandoned those members and its senses by accepting the wooden nickel management is proffering.

By: pinbalwyz

pinbalwyz — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 07:14:47 +0000

(…continued) My wife is almost 70 and has worked as a postal clerk/carrier most of her life. She desperately needs the security that her retirement & health benefits won’t go the way of Soviet pensioners when that economy collapsed. Washington State employees (through their union) have expressed concern the State only funds their health insurance plans on an annual ongoing basis rather than pre-funding it…a requirement the APWU finds burdensome in this instance. Pre-funding is a prudent measure BECAUSE when a government finds itself in a budget crisis (like Washington State) the money for the pensioners’ benefits is ALREADY THERE! Congress just got done granting the USPS 11 billion dollar$ this fiscal year–FREE. That doesn’t sound like the US Congress is out to destroy the USPS (or APWU) to me. The pre-funding requirement seems more like an insurance policy against financial collapse and budgetary crisis when we may be looking at 100%/yr inflation soon because of profligate monetary policies. The APWU leadership appears to have accepted the USPS management fiction/pretext hook, line & sinker. It’s not a mistake to insist your nest egg (benefits) for your old age be funded sooner than later or leaving open the possibility they might not get funded later (in a pinch–which is coming) AT ALL! Retirees (and new hires) deserve better. They’re not getting it when the APWU leadership parrots the USPS management (hostile to collective bargaining rights and the union itself) propaganda.

By: pinbalwyz

pinbalwyz — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I walked my first picket line when a junior in high school. I passionately believe in collective bargaining. I was a charter member of the residential building trades local 360 in Olympia and my maiden local was in Lancaster, California where I completed my apprenticeship. Still, I’m somewhat confused by the allegations that pre-funding health care benefits and retirement pensions is an attack on the postal service union members. I believe the APWU members themselves voted for an egregious contract last year that relegated new hires to the class of secondary workers when it came to salary, benefits, hours, and working conditions…a far bigger threat, in my view, to the post line worker than pre-funding their health and pension retirement benefits. From here, it looks like the union leadership is abandoning the security needed to insure promised benefits for its retired members in much the way it abandoned the need for fairness to new hires. (continued)