14 POSTAL RECORD I MARCH 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS

A kaleidoscope of labor-related controversiesacross the country in recent months has put unions on the defensive. Below are a few examples. Aside from being based on unfair,misleading and often downright untrue characteri-zations, these anti-union campaigns have some-thing else in common: They are all aimed at public employees and their unions.

Who is really working for America?Who is really working for America?The organized attack on our public employeesThe organized attack on our public employees

Teachers and their unions in Washington, DC,California and many other places have facedsharp criticism from right-wing organizations andcommentators for allegedly caring more abouttheir own careers than about student well-being,including through tenure that protects the jobs ofunderperforming teachers.

New Jersey’s governor is engaged in an increasinglyvociferous offensive against state workers, while in Wis-consin the new governor seeks to strip state workers ofmost collective bargaining rights and threatens to call inthe National Guard if employees protest. Meanwhile,Ohio’s new governor wants to eliminate those same bargaining rights and also end the rights of publicemployees to strike.

Even once-sacrosanct police and firefightershave faced mounting calls for sacrifice, includ-ing in Oakland, CA, where some leaders saidpolice were assuming too large a portion of thestruggling city’s budget and some should belaid off, notwithstanding the area’s longstand-ing crime problem.

They present convenient targets forpolitical and economic forces who seek todeflect blame for their own culpability inthe economic breakdown or for their laxoversight that helped cause our economicproblems, or to divert attention fromtheir efforts on behalf of special interests.

But there’s more to it than that. Whatwe’re witnessing is not merely a defen-sive ploy or a sleight-of-hand—butrather a calculated offensive meant toachieve extremist political and economicgoals that would fundamentally changethe country we live in.

Make no mistake—anti-worker forcesare trying to exploit the economic prob-

lems, the budget crunch facing govern-ments at all levels and the understand-able public concerns by attacking gov-ernment workers and their unions.

In so doing, they hope to score atwofer, blasting two of their favorite tar-gets—government and unions—withone fell swoop. Their goals go wellbeyond the rhetorical:

They hope to defund, delegitimizeand shrink government, which fordecades they have proclaimed doesn’toffer solutions to our problems butinstead is the problem. The fact that citizens, particularly those without vastresources of their own, will be the ones

to suffer from reduced government services is inconsequential to them.

They aim to promote privatizationand allow a strictly bottom-line orienta-tion to dominate. In their ideal world, ascorporations fill the void, public servicewill become a quaint notion of the past,replaced by transitory workforces.

“They can’t export these jobs, as theyhave with the manufacturing sector, butthey can certainly try to devalue them inthe interest of greater profits for theircorporate friends,” Fredric Rolando,president of the National Association ofLetter Carriers, said.

Anti-worker forces relish the chanceto weaken the labor movement by attack-ing the new face of unions. A little morethan a year ago, public employeesbecame the majority within the Americanlabor movement. Though the public sec-tor remains far smaller than the privatesector, it’s now unionized at a level five

Welcome to America 2011,where those who serve our nation—protecting, educating, connecting, healing or moving it—increasingly are becoming scapegoats for a financialcrisis they didn’t cause and can’t solve.

In New York City, conservative politiciansand their allies on the editorial pages ofsome newspapers have condemned transitworkers for supposedly calling in sick ratherthan working on the city’s subways, and haveeven blasted sanitation workers they claimsabotaged recent snow-removal efforts.

The pensions drawn by state, county andlocal employees in Maryland, Connecticut andelsewhere have led to demands for givebacksby officials and media commentators whoallege that they risk bankrupting governmentsat various levels.

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Postal workers have comeunder verbal attack from anti-worker congressmen whocontend that labor costs areputting the U.S. Postal Ser-vice in a situation where itmay need a bailout.

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16 POSTAL RECORD I MARCH 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS

times greater. Just as Willie Suttonrobbed banks because that’s where themoney was, anti-union ideologues arefocusing their attacks on where unionsare strongest.

By focusing on issues such as “lav-ish” pensions and “Cadillac” health careplans enjoyed by public-sector workers,our adversaries hope to foster jealousyamong private-sector workers and divideworkers into warring private-sector andpublic-sector camps.

“Their version of class warfare is to pitprivate-sector workers against public ser-vants,” says former U.S. Labor SecretaryRobert Reich. “They’d rather set averageworking people against one another—comparing one group’s modest incomesand benefits with another group’s modestincomes and benefits—than have Ameri-cans see that the top one percent is nowraking in a bigger share of nationalincome than at any time since 1928.”

In 1976, the share of income going tothe richest one percent of Americans was less than 9 percent; that has sincerisen about 22 percent.

As a bonus for the anti-labor forces,such divisions and infighting would dis-rupt the political activities of unions andworkers, reducing their role in the piv-otal 2012 elections.

“We know what their political intentis,” Rolando said. “They aim to distractworkers from uniting against their com-mon foes—such as the Wall Street crewthat brought our nation to the brink ofeconomic collapse, the corporations out-sourcing good American jobs, and theanti-worker politicians who facilitatesuch things.”

If you wonder how serious the otherside is, consider the annual meeting ofthe Conservative Political Action Confer-ence (CPAC) held in February in Wash-ington DC—and just look at the title ofone of the panels: “Bleeding AmericaDry: The Threat of Public SectorUnions.” It featured matching rhetoric.

The issues that our foes have chosenfor their anti-worker campaign show justhow morally and intellectually bankrupt—and hypocritical—their efforts are.When they speak of “lavish pensions,”they ignore the fact that the averagestate or local public employee retiresafter a lifetime of service with a $19,000annual pension—much of that resultingfrom his own contributions over theyears. This would be a rounding erroron the weekly salaries of some radio talkshow hosts who thunderously denouncethe benefits provided to public employ-ees. And when they complain about pub-lic employees’ health care plans in aneffort to provoke jealousy from otherworkers, these anti-labor forces conve-niently neglect to mention that they arethe loudest voices against extendinghealth care to all Americans.

Moreover, these contracts were nego-tiated between two sides, and as in anycollective bargaining, if workers gainedin one area it’s often because they madeconcessions in another.

At the same time, we must acknowl-edge that their efforts, as dishonest anddisingenuous as they may be, are bearingfruit. Repeat something often enough,and many people will eventually accept itas true. Moreover, it’s undeniable thatgovernments at all levels are in a financialsqueeze, unfunded pension obligationsare a problem, sacrifices are inevitable,and even moderate politicians looking forways to save money cannot ignore thewages and benefits of employees.

Our quarrel is not with those whoresponsibly seek to meet the chal-lenges in an equitable and reasonableway. America’s public employees andtheir unions stand ready as partnerswho have helped build this countryand who keep it running to seek com-mon solutions to our problems. In fact,we already have made sacrifices. Whatwe resist, and will continue to do sowith all our might, are the ideologically

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driven efforts to single us out, demo-nize us and pretend that we are thesource of the problems.

Labor’s counter-offensive—which,unlike the attack against us, is based onthe facts and not on hysteria—is takingplace at the level of the AFL-CIO andindividual unions, as well as in geo-graphic areas where battles are beingwaged against us. In New York City, forinstance, the three new and aggressivepresidents of the unions representinghospital police, teachers and transit work-ers have quickly become the city’s mostvisible labor leaders as they fight back.

The carrier connectionWhether we like it or not, letter carri-

ers are front and center in this struggle.Government employees and their

unions top the target list of extremistpoliticians and media personalities. Withanti-labor forces in control of the Houseof Representatives, the extreme rightwing sees its opportunity.

The verbal attacks on public workersand their unions, including postal work-ers and the NALC, will continue despitethe fact that the pay and benefits ofpostal employees aren’t just granted byCongress like earmarks in a spendingbill; they are negotiated. Public employ-ees deserve fair pay and benefits, just asother workers do.

And the NALC has a solid history ofnegotiating in good faith. Nobody forcesmanagement to accept our NationalAgreement. While we have the option of binding arbitration in the event of animpasse, that hasn’t been necessary formore than a decade.

The NALC will be lumped in withother public-sector unions despite thefact that the Postal Service isn’t part ofthe federal budget and isn’t supportedby tax money. Partly due to the poor jobdone by the media in explaining the situ-ation, the public doesn’t understand that

the Postal Service is an independent,self-funded agency, or that the wages ofpostal employees come from the sale ofstamps and other products and services,not from taxpayer funds.

Even some members of Congressdon’t seem to understand how thePostal Service works, or they prefer tointentionally mislead people. Last fall,Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), now the chair-man of the House committee that over-sees the Postal Service, jumped on theanti-government bandwagon when hecalled the effort to fix the pre-funding offuture retiree health benefits a “bailout”by taxpayers. Issa knows full well thatno one is talking about taxpayer money,and he also knows that the federal gov-ernment owes the USPS up to $75 bil-lion that the agency has overpaid intothe pension fund.

Some members of Congress havefalsely claimed that arbitrators aren’trequired to consider the financial healthof the Postal Service in their decisions—another way of blaming the unions forthe fiscal ills of the agency. In fact, arbi-trators always consider financial issues ofthe Postal Service, because they have toconsider all evidence presented, and thefinancial state of the USPS has consistent-ly been a topic in negotiations.

This false claim about arbitration soonpopped up elsewhere. Last fall, for exam-ple, in the middle of contract negotiationswith the American Postal Workers Unionand the National Rural Letter Carriers’Association, the Postal Service issued anews release repeating the claim.

Other politicians have gone further.Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) contendedthat arbitrators are actually forbiddenfrom considering the Postal Service’sfinancial situation—a claim easilydebunked by simply looking at the his-torical record.

This kind of rhetoric has had practicalconsequences. Behind-the-scenes Senatediscussions led to the inclusion in postal

Who is really working for America?

18 POSTAL RECORD I MARCH 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS

legislation introduced in September of aclause that would specifically require anarbitrator to consider the financial healthof the USPS. This clause implied thatfinancial considerations weren’t alreadypart of negotiations. More disturbingly, itwas a call for Congress to intervene inthe bargaining process.

As one of the largest and most activefederal unions, the National Associationof Letter Carriers is a prime target forfalse information and political attackslike these. The struggle to defend therights of public-sector workers is nowthe struggle for the labor movement,and letter carriers are on the front line.

Just as the NALC has had to take aleadership role in saving the Postal Ser-vice from its own mismanagement andmisguided solutions, such as eliminatingsix-day delivery, our union must takethe initiative in this struggle to informthe public and their representatives ofthe facts and the context.

Our union’s growing leadership rolein the labor movement was apparent inour ability to show our strength in the2008 presidential elections. Thoughmany of our sister unions in theAFL-CIO have more members, NALChad more activists in the field, for alonger amount of time, than any otherAFL-CIO union. We will be forced tomarshal that energy once more.

The NALC, together with our fellowpublic-employee unions, will endeavor tomake sure that the effort to scapegoatAmerica’s public servants backfiresagainst those who would shortchangethe public for their own narrow politicaland economic gain.

Standing tallThis is not something that can be

accomplished during a single campaigncycle or during a solidarity event. Rather,it’s a commitment that will be necessarynot only during the next two years, but

for as long as we remain the target ofanti-government and anti-labor forces.

The next two years will be vitallyimportant as Congress weighs reformlegislation for the USPS, as conserva-tives look to slash public-employee payand benefits, and as the nation preparesfor another national election. The NALCwill stand strong, as it always has,against those who seek to dismantle thePostal Service; in that effort, it will be upto the members to carry the torch.

It all starts with being engaged inNALC’s three-part legislative field plan.The first component involves contribut-ing to COLCPE, the union’s politicalaction fund. A strong COLCPE fundallows NALC to give support to friendsof letter carriers in Congress, who inturn will speak up for us against thosewho would go after our pay and benefitswhile attacking the Postal Service. COLCPE also finances the release ofcarriers to work on political campaignsthroughout the country. (See the Febru-ary issue of The Postal Record ornalc.org on how to donate to COLCPE.)

Next is signing up as an e-Activist. Byproviding NALC your e-mail address, wecan contact you at a moment’s notice, soyou can send an e-mail or call your mem-ber of Congress when legislation is up fora vote. (See the NALC website for informa-tion on becoming an e-Activist.)

The third component is to join theCarrier Corps. The NALC soon willannounce its updated program forturning carriers into activists throughcalls to attend political rallies, to joinphone banking and canvassing efforts,and to volunteer for campaigns. As thenation shifts its attention to the 2012presidential election, NALC will againhave to stand as one of the strongestunions in the country to make thevoice of working people heard. (Lookfor information on the revamped Carrier Corps program in a future issue of The Postal Record.)

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Thanks to a Supreme Court decisionin 2010, corporations can now spendunlimited money in elections—meaningmore right-wing attack ads on our televi-sion and radio stations. Union strengthwill be necessary to counter that mes-sage, not through outspending our adver-saries but rather through better use ofresources—including our activists. We’llneed union boots on the ground, goingdoor to door to make sure labor turns outfor those who will give workers a voice.

It’s going to be quite a struggle forcontrol of Congress and the WhiteHouse in 2012, and it’s vitally importantfor our elected leaders to be friends ofletter carriers. Our pay and benefits, aswell as the status of our employer, arelegislated by Congress. In this sense,even if we are a self-sufficient agencywhose funding does not come from tax-payers, we are as vulnerable to thewhims of Washington as is any group ofpublic employees. If postal reformbecomes an opportunity for extremiststo damage the Postal Service, we willneed friends in Congress and the WhiteHouse who will listen to our concerns.

But the coming elections are not theonly place we must make our voiceheard. We need to constantly try to influ-ence public opinion—and we must thinkbroadly when we do so, both in terms ofdefending all public employees and howwe make our arguments. Rather thansimply arguing on behalf of letter carriersor government workers as a whole, weneed to show others why their interestsare involved. Competent agencies anddedicated public employees are an impor-tant element in a strong country thatworks well for all its citizens.

Whenever we hear someone com-plaining about overpaid teachers or gov-ernment workers or the “anachronistic”Postal Service, it’s up to all of us to bethe voice of reason, cutting through thepropaganda. And we must also engagethe media when they do the same. If

you see something in your local paper,write a letter to the editor, giving themthe other side. Often journalists and edi-tors just don’t have the time to researchall of the facts and will be grateful to getanother viewpoint. If you would likeassistance, contact the Communicationsand Media Relations Department atNALC Headquarters. If you’d like, we’lldeal directly with the media outlet.

Letter carriers are linked with theother public employees—firefighters,teachers, police officers, nurses—as theface of those who strive to protect, edu-cate, heal, secure and connect the Amer-ican public. Our work is in the nationalinterest. And, as letter carriers, we bringimportant strengths to this task—notonly are we out in communities acrossthe country six days a week, we havebeen the most trusted federal workerssix years in a row.

“We have to help lead the way,” NALCPresident Rolando said. “This is essentialnot just for our own jobs and our ownfuture, but for the future of the Americanlabor movement and for the middle classin this country. The struggle by lettercarriers to defend our own jobs, pay andworking conditions mirrors the struggleof the whole union movement—and wehave the cohesion, the unity and thestrength to not only win the former battlebut to help to shape the outcome oflabor’s broader effort.”

If we don’t all stand together and fightfor what we believe in as dedicated publicservants, those who seek to dismantlegovernment and privatize wherever theycan will have an easier time of it. And whowill gain from tearing down our publicinstitutions and employees? Whoever it is,it sure isn’t the American public, and itsure isn’t those who serve the public. ✉For more information on our fight to save six-daydelivery, go to nalc.org. For more on what theAFL-CIO is doing to help direct the fight againstpublic employees, check out its new “States ofDenial” website at afl-cio.org/issues/states.

Who is really working for America?