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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 2011)
MARCH 4, 2011:NWLP 3/1/11 10:09 AM Page 2 Postal workers, customers testify before Workers’ Rights Board After listening to testimony from postal customers and workers about deteriorating service and substandard working conditions at the U.S. Postal Service, a Portland Workers’ Rights Board recommended that USPS hire more letter carriers and clerks to help alleviate the problem. The Workers’ Rights Board is a project of Portland Jobs with Justice, a coalition of 90 organizations working for workers’ rights. The board is drawn from a wide spectrum of community leaders willing to intervene when workers’ rights are threatened. Oregon state Sen. Chip Shields (D- Portland) chaired the public hearing Feb. 21 at Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland. More than 100 people attended, with 20 people offer- ing testimony. Joining Shields on the panel were United Methodist Pastor John Schwiebert; Geri Washington, a Mult- nomah Education Service District direc- tor; Don Oman, owner of Casa Bruno; Jon Bartholomew of OSPIRG; and Bill Bigelow of Rethinking Schools. Workers testified of chronic manda- tory overtime, late, irregular delivery, and pressure to work with injuries, while at the same time “transitional employees” revealed how they have worked under one-year contracts with no benefits for as long as four years. Anil Nath has worked as a transi- tional employee (the equivalent of a temp) for three-and-a-half years. “I’ve worked very hard in very extreme con- ditions of weather, and I’ve been bounced around like a ping-pong from station to station.” He told the panel that while he was away from work to get treatment for a work-related injury, the Postal Service tried to fire him. “Thank goodness that I do have one benefit: I belonged to the union and they got my job back in days,” he said. Other transitional employees said they were afraid to take time off for fear of being fired or not having their con- tracts renewed. ABOVE) Gloria McMurtry, a small business owner in Northeast Portland, testifies before a Workers Rights Board about the importance of having regular six-day a week delivery with the same carrier. (BELOW) Karen Staats, a member of Letter Carriers Branch 82, shows injuries she has incurred while delivering the mail. Staats told the panel that she felt pressured to return to work before she had fully healed from torn ligaments and a fractured ankle. She reinjured her ankle hurrying to finish her route and will live with permanent pain and swelling for the rest of her life. “You’d be surprised how much a foot impacts the rest of your body,” she said. 7LUHG LQ 3$,1" 0RVW ,QVXUDQFH 3ODQV $FFHSWHG 3 528'/< 6 (59,1* 3 257/$1' : 25.(56 ) 25 2 9(5 < ($56 PAGE 2 dated by Congress in 2006. “No other government agency has to do this. No private company is required to do this,” Card said. Card said the fund currently has enough money ($40 billion) to cover all retiree health care needs for the next 20 years. Additionally, the Office of the In- spector General has reported that postal employee retirement accounts are over- funded by more than $50 billion. “If Congress eliminates the mandate, we can keep your local post office open and continue to deliver six days a week ... refund the overpayment of ratepayer funds in our retirement accounts, and hire the unemployed,” Card said. After listening to testimony and ask- ing questions, the Workers’ Rights Board adjourned briefly before issuing its report, which included a pledge to re- quest a meeting with USPS manage- ment to recommend it restore customer service and improve working condi- tions by fully staffing postal facilities. The panel also pledged to communi- cate with Portland’s Congressional del- egation and President Obama their de- sire to see a swift fix to the USPS accounting problems. “The issues facing the public Postal Service are of deep concern to all com- munity members,” Sen. Shields said. “I found particularly troubling certain management practices, especially with regard to understaffing and transitional employees, but I also came away with a sense of hope because of some great ideas for the future.” Teacher and Rethinking Schools ed- itor Bill Bigelow said, “I learned some- thing new here tonight. I didn’t know this, and I feel that I’m a pretty in- formed person. I would like more peo- ple to hear what we’ve heard tonight.” Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland %HHVRQ &KLURSUDFWLF KHOSV EULQJ WKH UHOLHI \RX QHHG RI :RUNLQJ Ken Wilson, a 26-year letter carrier, said for most of his career he has been able to balance job and family responsi- bilities without too much problem. That has changed the last couple of years. A former Little League manager, he had to give that up because he couldn’t always make practices or be on time for games. He said he’s seldom home early enough to help his son with homework. “I want to be there for them (family), but the Post Office is keeping me away from them with all of the mandatory overtime and working my day off be- cause they won’t hire enough people to do the job right.” Window clerk Patty Olsen, a mem- ber of American Postal Workers Union Local 128, said long lines, shorter hours, and closures have impacted everyone. She said under the USPS plan, 2,000 stations are earmarked for closure nationwide over the next few years, with rumors circulating locally that Creston and University stations are on the chopping block. “Customers are unhappy, and work- ers are frustrated,” Olsen said. Postal workers said it only makes sense to hire more employees working regular 40-hour workweeks with no forced overtime. “It’s easy to work harder and be more productive when you know you’ll have time to recover and heal,” one worker said. But USPS management says the hir- ing freeze is necessary to cut labor costs because of declining revenue. The Post- master General is further advocating cutting one or two days of delivery per week. National Association of Letter Carri- ers Branch 82 Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Card reminded the Workers’ Rights Board that USPS is a self-sup- porting government agency that doesn’t use any taxpayer dollars to operate. “Anyone saying the USPS is looking for a bailout is flat-out lying,” he said. USPS reportedly lost $8 billion last year, but most of that loss — $5.5 bil- lion — was due to a burdensome retiree health care prefunding schedule man- 7UHDWPHQW IRU SDLQ GXH WR RYHUXVH DQG UHSHWLWLYH PRWLRQ &KLURSUDFWLF DGMXVWPHQWV 7UHDWPHQW IRU DFFLGHQW DQG VSRUWVUHODWHG LQMXULHV 5HKDELOLWDWLRQ H[HUFLVHV 7KHUDSHXWLF PDVVDJH ,QWHUQDO GLDJQRVLV DQG WUHDWPHQW /DE WHVWV DQG [UD\V 'U 'DQ %HHVRQ &KLURSUDFWRU 6( 7KLUWHHQWK $YH LQ 6HOOZRRG &$// NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS MARCH 4, 2011
