Northwest labor press., November 18, 2011, Page 5, Image 5

Postal worker rallies continue
Local Motion
October 2011
A list of Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces deciding
whether to be union-represented – as reported by the National
Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
Voting in union elections
Date Workplace (Location) Union
Yes
No
45
59
10/12 Fund for the Public Interest call center (Portland) CWA Local 7901 19
5
10/18 Franz Bakery outlet (Springfield) Bakers Local 114
4
0
10/19 Oregon Health Authority (Salem) SEIU Local 503
15
36
10/19 Teacher Standards & Practices Comm. (Salem) SEIU Local 503 14
2
10/18 Franz Bakery outlet (Newport) Bakers Local 114
6
9/29 First Student (Grants Pass) Teamsters Local 962
DECERT
6
Requesting a union election
Workplace (Location) Union
Number of workers in unit
Neighbor Impact Head Start (Redmond) OSEA DECERT
Down River / ITW (Woodland) AWPPW DECERT
Akzo Nobel Coatings (Salem) Teamsters Local 324 DECERT
Eagle Painting and Construction (Hubbard) Painters District Council 5
L EGEND
: workers will be union-represented
DECERT
: workers will be on their own
: A decertification election occurs when some union-represented workers declare
that the union no longer has majority support. A ‘yes’ vote is a vote for the union.
NOVEMBER 18, 2011
12
12
29
2
Portland-area letter carriers and their
allies held early morning rallies the
week of Nov. 7 to encourage Congress
to save the U.S. Postal Service, without
layoffs and cutbacks.
The postmaster general is proposing
massive post office closings, reducing
days of delivery and service standards,
as well as huge workforce cuts starting
Nov. 18 if Congress doesn’t act to fix it.
“The cuts are not necessary. The
postal service is not broke,” said Jim
Cook, president of Portland-area Na-
tional Association of Letter Carriers
Branch 82, which organized the rallies.
“Despite competition from the Internet
and the severe recession, the U.S. Postal
Service had remained profitable. The fi-
nancial problem was created by Con-
gress and Congress can fix it.”
Cook pointed to a 2006 congres-
sional mandate requiring the Postal
Service to pre-fund 75 years of retire-
ment benefits within 10 years, which
costs USPS $5.5 billion per year and
makes the Postal Service appear to be
losing money. No other U.S. govern-
ment agency is required to pre-fund re-
tirement in this manner.
“This was a union-busting trick by
the Republicans,” Cook said.
A labor-backed bill in the U.S.
House (H.R. 1351), which has a bi-par-
tisan majority of co-sponsors (226),
would address the pre-funding issue.
The bill, however, is bottled up in com-
mittee by its chair, right-wing U.S. Rep.
Darrel Issa (R-Calif.).
Issa has introduced his own bill,
which would gut collective bargaining
rights for postal workers and privatize
much of the work, among other things.
H.R. 2309 was approved by the House
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Postal workers rally in front of the Piedmont/MLK Jr. Post Office in
Northeast Portland Nov. 8 to save Saturday and door-to-door delivery.
Congress is considering several bills, two of which will dramatically cut
service. The rally was one of four held by NALC Branch 82 the week of Nov.
7. Following this event, USPS management warned the union that any letter
carriers caught picketing in uniform would be immediately suspended and
possibly fired.
Committee on Oversight and Govern-
ment Reform on Oct. 13. The bill had
not been acted on by the full House at
press time.
A postal reform measure in the Sen-
ate — the 21st Century Postal Service
Act (S. 1789) — cleared the Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee Nov. 9 on a bipartisan vote
of 9-1. The committee is chaired by
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.).
Postal worker unions oppose this bill
too, saying pre-funding retiree health in-
surance is still the top policy priority.
The measure ties the future of Saturday
service to profitability and mandates the
phase-out of door-to-door delivery for
35 million households and businesses,
putting 80,000 postal jobs at risk.
“A retiree health pre-funding man-
date will make profits impossible,”
NALC said.
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