From the Canadian Union of Postal Workers:

RSMCs – Let’s Talk!

National RSMC  Virtual Town Hall June 10^th – Mark Your Calendars
We’ll Call You.

Sisters/Brothers:

While RSMC negotiations are underway, your union representatives are well aware of what a challenge it will be to bring all of us together when negotiations come down to the crunch. We know that many RSMCs live and work in small and rural communities, while others work alongside urban members.

That’s why we are going to try something new and unprecedented for our Union – an open phone forum for all RSMCs across the country. Such forums have been tried with great success in other unions. It gives us a chance to come together, to talk about our issues, to ask questions and to connect with other RSMCs and union representatives.

Two forums – one French, one English – are scheduled for Sunday June 10^th.

French from 2 – 3 pm (EDT).

English from 4 – 5 pm (EDT).

This time was arranged to ensure the greatest possible participation. Making time for this call would be greatly appreciated.

All RSMCs are invited to participate. Here’s how it works: you will receive a telephone reminder prior to the call. On June 10^th, your phone will ring at 2 pm EDT if you participate in the French forum, or at 4 pm EDT if you participate in the English forum. When you pick up the phone, you’ll automatically be placed in the call.

Please note that all questions will be screened to ensure we can answer as many as possible and to avoid duplication. All RSMCs will have the opportunity to pose questions and comments following the call. Union representatives will follow up on each and every one of these if we didn’t have time to address them during the call.

The call will be moderated by Brother Denis Lemelin, National President, with Brother Donald Lafleur, RSMC chief negotiator and RSMC’s negotiators participating. Elected officers and union representatives will be listening on the line as well as many Local Presidents. But as RSMCS, you are the ones who will have the floor. Your elected officers are there to listen to your voices.

We look forward to hearing from you on June 10^th. You are the Union.

In Solidarity,

Gayle Bossenberry
1st National Vice-President

(May 31, 2012 / RSMC Negotiations Bulletin No 11)

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5, 2012 —In a highly successful nationwide food drive, the National Association of Letter Carriers collected more than 70.5 million pounds of food on Saturday, May 12, at a time when hunger is a major problem.

The NALC’s annual one-day drive, largest in the nation, is held on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. This was the 20th annual NALC Food Drive to stamp out hunger. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Trust for Historic Preservation today released its list of the 11 Most Endangered Places. Included on the list are the thousands of historic post offices nationwide that the Trust says may fall victim to what the Trust calls a “haphazard disposition process”, and a “lack of information and guidance from the U.S. Postal Service”:

Historic U.S. Post Office Buildings – From coast to coast, historic American post office buildings are facing uncertain futures. Due to the U.S. Postal Services haphazard disposition process, developers and others interested in purchasing and rehabbing these historic buildings end up walking away after failing to get timely or clear answers from the Postal Service.

Read more at the Trust’s web site.

From the NALC’s e-Activist Network:

Dear Supporter,

As you know, the Senate passed S. 1789 in April over the vigorous objection of the NALC. We believe that the bill offers, at best, a temporary Band-Aid and, at worst, a slow-motion death spiral for the Postal Service. It prioritizes pre-funding and downsizing and fails to offer a viable business model for the future. Click here for a comprehensive review of the bill.

A number of members in Delaware have reported receiving an e-mail from Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), one of the bill’s chief sponsors, asking them to sign a petition calling on the House of Representatives to take up S. 1789. Click here to see the petition. The petition misleadingly claims that the Senate bill “will save taxpayers billions, save millions of middle class jobs, and keep thousands of post offices open.”

Call Sen. Carper’s office and ask him to take down this misleading petition, because:

• The USPS receives no taxpayer funds and hasn’t for decades.
• The bill specifically targets the elimination of 18 percent of the workforce (nearly 100,000 middle-class jobs) by allocating surplus FERS pension funds for employee buyouts—that is, it does not save jobs but cuts jobs instead.
• The bill merely slows the pace of post office closings since it still mandates the massive pre-funding of future retiree health benefits (which no other agency or private firm must do) and it fails to recover surplus CSRS pension funds that could cover the full cost of such benefits.

Sen. Carper’s petition follows the posting of a very misleading graphic on the senator’s website that seeks to embarrass the House into action by highlighting the mounting financial loss at the Postal Service while the House dithers. The graphic shows a running tally of the loss—$25 million per day—but it fails to tell visitors that 96 percent of that loss in the second quarter resulted from the unique and unfair pre-funding burden that Congress imposed in 2006.

Call Sen. Carper at (202) 224-2441 and let him know how you feel.

In Solidarity,

Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers