Hello brothers and sisters of the APWU. I can’t stress enough how much danger we are in about losing the collective bargaining we have had since 1971.

But it is in danger. We are going to see the USPS change over the next three years more than it has changed in the last ten, and all the changes do not look good. The biggest issue I have is the waste. The bottom line is that management is purposely trying to destroy the USPS. The contracting out of work the crafts can do ten times less expensively than contractors are being paid.                      

Management has a contract with a company called Mobile Mechanic on Wheels. Here are just a couple of examples of what they are doing and how much they are charging the post office. One letter carrier’s jeep had a turn signal out, they called Mechanic on Wheels and paid $7.00 for the light bulb, $65.00 labor, and $65.00 service charge which totaled $137.00. In another example, a carrier hit a curb and the vehicle needed a tire replaced. 137.00 for the tire and $65.00 for labor, and let’s not forget the $65.00 service charge.

Isn’t that sad? I’ve seen copies of receipts for up to $300.00 plus to replace one tire. I just don’t understand this type of waste. It is easy to track the payments the USPS is paying the contractors. Receipts don’t lie just like clock rings. It’s a fact jack, that somebody out there is trying to bankrupt the post office, and bust the union.

We need everyone’s help in this fight for survival. Not just the steward and a president or a local officer. It’s all of us. Just to show you how blind some of the members are: I hear clerks saying they are dropping out of the union because they didn’t get a change of schedule, or because a grievance was filed and now it’s interfering with the way they want the contract enforced to benefit them.

I can’t believe someone is so blind that they can’t see the only thing we have left is this great union. The majority do care and that’s what keeps the union officers and stewards going. We all have to stop worrying about what the person next to us is doing and all of us get on the same page (team) and start worrying about what management and congress is doing before it’s too late.           

Let’s stand together and fight for our rights and our jobs.                  

The struggle continues.

David Steinbach is also the president of the Littleton Local APWU.

This is reprinted from Colorado Postal Workers Union’s “Voice of Colorado”

As much as I hate to start talking politics, we have to. It is the Republicans doing this. Bush started it in 2006 and they are coming after the USPS with both feet in the middle of our chest. You probably have seen bill 2309, that has passed the House. If this bill passes, it’s goodbye to you and me.     

Brothers and sisters, we have got to make a stand and get politically involved. The one phone call or the one letter you write to your congressman may be just the one to save us. Bill 2309 will lay off 200,000 of us by 2015 and close the doors on over 300 post offices. How dangerous is that? To take an office and close it down you lose carriers, clerks, custodians, and yes, even management. Look at the damage that would bring upon us. Do this times 300 plus offices and look at the workers that will be out of jobs. It’s frightening.

I still have some fight to fight for my brothers and sisters who still have a postal career, and to keep these jobs we have for the next group of  workers coming in.