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October 2, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Hey, Postmaster General! No more cuts in postal service!
Nearly three dozen
postal workers, retirees,
and postal customers
rallied outside a confer-
ence of the Greater
Portland Postal Cus-
tomer Council Sept. 23,
where Postmaster Gen-
eral Megan Brennan
was speaking. Postal
workers and their allies
called on Brennan to
stop closing mail pro-
cessing plants and post
offices, to stop cutting
jobs, and to stop fur-
ther delays of the mail.
Since 2007, USPS has
eliminated 155,000
jobs while closing 153
processing plants (al-
most half, including plants in Salem and Pendleton, Oregon), and reducing service. Currently, Brennan
is considering shuttering another 68 mail plants, including ones in Bend and Springfield, Oregon,
plus reducing hours at 5,000 more rural post offices, including 37 in Oregon. Six-day and at-the-door
delivery also are threatened. Protesters tried to take their message directly to the postmaster general,
but they were turned away by security guards at the Portland Art Museum, where the conference
was held. Later, retired letter carrier Jamie Partridge and Rev. John Schwiebert of Portland Commu-
nities and Postal Workers United got a five minute meeting with Brennan, where they presented her
with a petition containing 1,500 signatures demanding ‘No Closures, No Cuts, No Delay of the Mail.‘
“We’ll see if our pleas, petitions and postcards result in preserving the people’s post office,” said
Schwiebert.
Instafab strike
From Page 1
That’s all we want,” says striker
Matt Momb.
Other workers have since
joined the strike, bringing the to-
tal to 16.
Strikers have the support of
Iron Workers Locals 29 and
516, and Portland Jobs with Jus-
tice. They have appealed to In-
stafab customers like Anderson
Construction and Skanska to
drop the company, but it’s not
clear Instafab has lost any busi-
ness thus far — just employees.
Since July, neither side has at-
tempted to make contact with
the other. In June, Instafab
owner Bruce Perkins said he
wanted to meet with workers —
in online comments at the
Northwest Labor Press web site.
After that, the two sides worked
out plans to a meet July 8 at a
Vancouver church, and workers
agreed to Perkins’ condition that
there be no representatives of
the Iron Workers union present.
But Perkins backed out when he
learned that Portland Jobs with
Justice executive director Diana
Pei Wu would be attending.
So far, several strikers have
found work elsewhere, and two
strikers have returned to work,
though one later returned to the
strike.
Iron Workers Local 29 Presi-
dent Robert Camarillo says In-
stafab has made some improve-
ments since the strike began —
raising wages, installing an ad-
ditional port-a-potty, and im-
proving the employer-provided
health insurance.
Strikers are waiting for action
from the National Labor Rela-
tions Board. The union has four
charges against Instafab alleging
violations of federal labor law.
One of the charges stems from
statements Perkins made using
an alias at nwlaborpress.org. All
four charges are pending inves-
tigation, and so is a charge In-
stafab filed against Local 29.
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