One postal union heads to contract arbitration; another extends talks

“Throughout the collective bargaining process, APWU sought to protect our members’ jobs and to strengthen the Postal Service,” Postal Workers President Cliff Guffey said after a Nov. 20 bargaining session. “Every proposal we have made to preserve jobs for our members will also benefit the USPS, because APWU members can perform the work more efficiently and less expensively than subcontractors. Our proposals are good for the Postal Service and for the American people.”

The talks between USPS and its unions come as the third of them, the Letter Carriers, dissected the $8.5 billion “loss” in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, which USPS announced on Nov. 12. NALC’s analysis showed all but $500 million of the red ink was due to a combination of political gridlock and an accounting charge.

Former President George W. Bush’s 2006 postal reorganization law “legally bound the USPS on Sept. 30 to once again make a $5.5 billion payment toward pre-funding its Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund,” NALC said.

“It bears repeating that this mandate to pre-fund the PSRHBF in just 10 years is at once highly unusual, since no other corporation or agency is required to pre-fund benefits at all — much less at such an onerous level — and it’s unnecessary. Even before Sept. 30, the fund already contained enough cash to cover current and future retiree health benefits for decades to come.”

On top of that, NALC reported, “An adjustment was made in how workers’ comp costs are calculated, based on the government’s assumptions about interest rates and on long-term predictions regarding compensation and health care costs. Even though no money actually changed hands, generally accepted accounting practices forced the Postal Service to recognize on its balance sheet a non-cash expense of $2.5 billion.

“That’s $5.5 billion for pre-funding the PSRHBF plus $2.5 billion for future workers’ compensation costs, making for an $8 billion loss,” NALC said. The other $500 million? That’s due to a 12%-16% drop in mail volume, thanks to the Great Recession, NALC calculated. The unions are also bargaining with an agency whose chief, Postmaster General John Potter, is stepping down – with a large private CEO-style retirement package, the unions note – in December.

Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.

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