Letter Carriers Protest Outsourcing at Postal HQ
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Your friendly letter carrier may soon be a thing of the past. The
Postal Service’s push to privatize and outsource letter carriers was targeted
by a rally of hundreds of carriers Monday afternoon at Postal Service
headquarters at L’Enfant Plaza, organized by the National Association of
Letter Carriers (NALC). The protest, despite a biting wind and intermittent
rain, showed the agency NALC will fight the Bush regime’s plans to
gradually outsource their jobs, by replacing retiring Letter Carriers with
lower-paid, low-benefit “casuals.” The agency’s effort to cut labor costs
by inserting “casuals” is a major sticking point in bargaining with the
NALC, which represents more than 200,000 letter carriers nationwide.
The protesters made their voices heard despite the wind, repeatedly chanting
“No contracting out!” One said “We’ll stay here till we’re
blue” from the cold. But the unionists were concerned not just about their own
jobs, but their communities, too--and they intend to rally constituents to their
side nationwide. “This is just the beginning. Eventually they want to
replace all of us with ‘casuals,’” said Ed Smith of Local 1427 in Santa
Clara, Calif. “They want to use low-wage no-benefit workers. Their
goal is to have a Wal-Mart atmosphere,” he added, referring to the giant
retailer--the nation’s largest private firm--known for its low pay, anti-union
hatred and lack of health care benefits. “The Letter Carrier comes to your
home every day. Do you want a professional union Letter Carrier who cares about you, or not?
That’s the message we’ll take to communities,” he added. Replacement of
the Letter Carriers with casuals is a particular sore point with Denise Null,
President of Branch 555, in Cheyenne, Wyo. Her state is so thinly
populated that it has only 300 NALC members. “We know our customers on a
first-name basis.” If casuals come in, “when its 20 below zero and the
wind is blowing at 70 mph, the mail may not get delivered,” she added. Kenneth
Lerch, President of Local 3825 in Rockville, Md., put the Postal Service’s
push for “casuals” into a national context. “This is nothing more
than union-busting ordered from the highest levels of the Bush
administration,” he said. Lerch noted the agency’s board of governors
is chaired by right wing former Reagan administration official Jim Miller.
“I’d like to see informational picketing at every post office in the
country” about the agency’s campaign to insert “casuals,” he added.
“Do we really want low-bidder unscreened people coming to our doors every
day?” NALC Branch 210 President Ken Lerch asked, pointing out that letter
carriers – who are now trained, professional and unionized – know who’s
home and who’s not in neighborhoods across the country. Contracted-out letter
carriers would have no benefits, no leave, retirement or medical coverage under
the Postal Services plan, according to the NALC, which will be working closely
with community organizations to oppose the privatization plan. Photos by Chris Garlock
- reported by
Press Associates, Inc.