APWU News
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Labor Launches Social Networking Tool
To Get Out the Vote in November
APWU Web News Article 109-2012, Sept. 20, 2012
Workers’ Voice, the political action arm of the AFL-CIO, has introduced
a new online tool called “Friends and Neighbors” to activate
and energize working families around political campaigns, legislative
issues and holding elected officials accountable.
Friends and Neighbors is both a phone-banking and e-mailing tool that
works best when you sign-in using Facebook. With your permission, the
tool will match your Facebook friends with voter registration records,
and create a call-list for you to contact friends and neighbors to talk
about what’s at stake in the 2012 elections. The tool provides
a sample script for talking about the election, and allows you to record
responses that can be used to help turn out the vote in November. If
you don’t have a Facebook account, you can still use Friends and
Neighbors by registering with the Friends and Neighbors website.
“For too long our political process has been dominated by too
much money, and too much power, concentrated in the hands of too few,”
said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “That is why Workers’
Voice was created — to build an independent voice for the working
and middle class who are the 99%.”
The APWU is encouraging members and activists to get involved and use
the new tool. “Our future depends on our ability to change our
nation’s politics,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey.
“With the Postal Service in the grips of a congressionally-manufactured
financial crisis and the country struggling to overcome the Great Recession,
APWU members must become soldiers in the battle of the political future
of our country,” Guffey said.
A video about how “Friends and Neighbors” works can be seen
at www.aflcio.org/fandemo.
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Paul Ryan’s budget plan hits federal workers
By Joe Davidson
The spending plan proposed by Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, Mitt Romney’s
pick as the Republican vice presidential candidate, has drawn strong
opposition from federal employees.
Under the proposed House Republican budget, which Ryan sponsored as
chairman of the Budget Committee, savings from the federal workforce
would total $368 billion over 10 years. The two-year freeze on basic
federal pay rates, scheduled to expire at the end of this year, would
be extended through 2015 for a total of five years.
“The Path to Prosperity,” as the budget plan is named, also
calls on federal workers to make an unspecified “more equitable
contribution to their retirement plans,” which means higher costs
to employees. Additionally, the federal workforce would be cut, through
attrition over three years, by 10 percent, which equals more than 200,000
positions.
Because the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Homeland
Security have so many employees, the majority of the eliminated positions
would come from these agencies, all of which are related to national
security.
The budget document says its plans “re�ect the growing frustration
of workers across the country at the privileged rules enjoyed by government
employees.”
Ryan’s budget justifies the employee-related cuts, saying “it
is no coincidence that private sector employment continues to grow only
sluggishly while the government expands: To pay for the public sector’s
growth, Washington must immediately tax the private sector or else borrow
and impose taxes later to pay down the debt.”
Federal employees are already contributing $75 billion in budget savings
over 10 years through the freeze, for $60 billion, and another $15 billion
in increased retirement costs for new employees starting next year.
The plan drew strong opposition from employee organizations when it
was announced in March. American Federation of Government Employees
President John Gage said the retirement savings means workers would
“face massive cuts to the retirement benefits promised when they
were hired.”
Gage also said “it is fundamentally wrong for federal employees
to be required, yet again, to serve as the Automated Teller Machine
for the nation. Enough is enough.”
National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley said the
authors of the budget apparently “don’t know, don’t
understand or don’t care about the key role federal employees
play in helping keep our nation safe, ensuring that our food and medicines
are safe and effective, that our air and water are safe, and performing
so many other services that people not only expect and want, but need,
as well.”
And Joseph A. Beaudoin, president of the National Active and Retired
Federal Employees Association, said, “Ryan’s belief that
it is permissible to penalize middle-class federal workers, who protect
Americans and keep our nation moving forward, is frightening.”
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House Passes Bill to Fire Tax-Delinquent Federal,
Postal Workers
Posted by postal on Aug 3rd, 2012 and filed under APWU NEWS, Breaking
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The House of Representatives passed a bill on July 31 that could cost
federal and postal workers their jobs if they are behind in paying their
federal taxes.
The Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act (H.R. 828), introduced by
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and approved by the chamber by a vote of
263 to 114, stipulates that “persons having seriously delinquent
tax debts shall be ineligible for Federal employment.”
The bill defines “seriously delinquent” as debt for which
a lien notice has been filed in public records.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the bill would not
apply to debt:
* That is being paid in a timely manner under an approved installment
payment agreement or an offer-in-compromise;
* For which a collection due process hearing has been requested or pending;
* For which a levy has been issued or agreed to by an applicant for
employment, or
* That is determined to be an economic hardship to the taxpayer.
Under the act, U.S. government employees would have 60 days to prove
that their tax debt is not seriously delinquent before facing termination.
Leading opposition to the legislation during debate on the House floor,
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said that the measure would be “largely
symbolic” because 96 percent of federal employees pay their taxes.
When the bill was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee in April,
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who chairs the committee, conceded that the
bill is “almost pure symbolism.”
“That clearly was the intent,” said APWU Legislative and
Political Director Myke Reid. “Families that are struggling in
a depressed economy to meet their financial obligations – often
through no fault of their own – could now lose their only source
of income, which strangely enough could have helped to pay the outstanding
debt.”
“I strongly believe that the House’s efforts and energy
would be better spent on focusing on measures to strengthen the federal
civil service and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal
government,” Maloney said, “rather than by making symbolic
gestures that reinforce a negative view of the federal work force.”
Critics have observed that Chaffetz’s bill does not apply to government
contractors and their employees, and that the chamber’s Republican
majority has not considered legislation offered by Democrats that would
apply the employment ban for tax delinquency to private-sector work
that is paid for with federal funds.
H.R. 828 has been referred to the Senate, where a similar bill (S. 376),
introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), has not been acted upon. As reported
by; Postal News.com
Website Editors Note: As this was posted Fifty Congressmen
were delenguent on their own taxes,
on average they owed $15,498 each. Not counting those who "leaglly"
dodge taxes by moving
their money out of the country to foriegn banks, which Congress made
legal.
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Senate Approves Postal Bill,
Action Now Moves to House
APWU News Bulletin 12-2012, April 27, 2012 | PDF
“We must now turn our attention to the House...We must re-double
our efforts to Save America's Postal Service."
– APWU President Cliff Guffey
The Senate passed an amended version of the 21st Century Postal Service
Act (S. 1789) on April 25, and legislative action on postal reform will
now move to the House of Representatives.
“Although the bill is flawed, the amended version is far better
than the original,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “That
is a result of the tremendous effort of APWU members, postal customers,
and elected officials who appreciate the importance of the Postal Service
to American life. Thank you for your hard work,” he said.
“With the moratorium on the closure of mail processing plants
and post offices set to expire on May 15, we must now turn our attention
to the House. We expect to face very tough challenges there,”
Guffey said. “But we will do everything we can to get a good bill.
We call on our members, small businesses, individual customers, and
lawmakers to re-double our efforts to Save America’s Postal Service.”
“House leaders have not yet given any indication of how they plan
to proceed,” said Myke Reid, APWU Legislative and Political director.
The House could consider H.R. 2309, a bill sponsored by Rep. Darrell
Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), which would destroy the Postal
Service. More than half of the members of the House are co-sponsors
of another bill, H.R. 1351, which postal unions support, but Rep. Issa,
the chairman of the House committee with jurisdiction over the Postal
Service, has refused to allow it to come up for a vote. The House also
could consider the Senate bill.
A Mixed Bag
“The Senate bill is a mixed bag,” Guffey said. It would
provide the USPS, which is facing imminent collapse, with short-term
financial relief, by returning $11 billion in USPS overpayments to federal
pension funds to the Postal Service. “Keep in mind,” Guffey
said, “this is money paid by postal customers, workers and the
Postal Service – not taxpayers.”
The legislation also would restructure USPS payments to pre-fund healthcare
benefits for future retirees, spreading the payments over 40 years –
instead of the current 10 – and reducing the funding mandate from
100 percent to 80 percent. No other government agency or private company
is required to make such payments.
“These are positive steps,” Guffey said, “but they
do not go far enough. As a result, the USPS will not have access to
the capital it needs to meet the challenges of the future,” he
said.
Closings, Consolidations
Another improvement, Guffey said, is that the 21st Century Postal Service
Act would allow more community input in the decision-making process
for closing or consolidating post offices and postal facilities. It
also would give the Postal Regulatory Commission authority to reverse
USPS decisions on these issues.
In addition, the bill would provide limited protection for service standards
for a minimum of three years. “Although we sought stronger, longer
safeguards, this is an improvement over the original bill, which did
nothing to preserve service,” Guffey said. “Protecting service
is essential to preserving the Postal Service – and postal jobs.”
But the legislation also would have devastating consequences for the
thousands of postal and federal employees who were injured on the job
and who receive compensation from the Office of Workers Compensation
Program (OWCP), Guffey noted.
Among other provisions, the bill would authorize the Postal Service
to offer retirement incentives. It also would allow the USPS to negotiate
with postal unions to create a health plan separate from the Federal
Employees Health Benefit Program.
The legislation also would require arbitrators to consider the financial
condition of the Postal Service, along with other relevant factors.
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