Young warns that contracting out mail delivery could weaken Nation's Defense Against Terrorism
Letter Carriers union President William H. Young warned the U.S. Postal Service today against out-sourcing to private contractors the delivery of mail to American homes and businesses, saying such a move would weaken the nation’s defense against terrorist attacks.
Young issued his warning during a keynote address to some 9,300 delegates on the opening day of a week-long 65th biennial convention of the 300,00-member National Association of Letter Carriers at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“The threat to the quality and security of the mail posed by low-wage contract workers cannot be overstated,” Young said. “In the midst of a global war on terror, now is not the time to open a hole in the nation’s defenses by giving unscreened, contingent workers access to the mail stream.”
Young said the possibility of such an action by the Postal Service is not far-fetched, citing the Service’s recent announcement that is it considering contracting out work at postal Air Mail Centers. He said that could lead postal management into a right-wing temptation to contract out letter carrier work.
“The Postal Service, as an institution, would make a tragic mistake if it is led astray by these extreme attitudes and views,” Young said.
Young recalled the anthrax attacks on the United States in 2001 and the trust that both mailers and the American people had in highly skilled letter carriers during that critical period. He said contracting out letter carrier work now would backfire on the Postal Service and on the American public.
He said the NALC will be prepared to respond appropriately if the Postal Service chooses back-door privatization by flirting with contracting out.
“We will rally the public, the mailers and our members to resist,” Young said. “There is already one Wal-Mart in America. We don’t need a second one. We simply won’t stand for it.”
In his keynote address, Young also discussed the upcoming contract negotiations with the Postal Service for a new National Agreement, efforts to get final congressional approval to House- and Senate-passed postal reform legislation, and the union’s role in helping pro-labor candidates in this fall’s congressional elections.
Young said that emergence of “a White House that is openly hostile to labor unions” has increased the danger of postal reform legislation turning into an attack on collective bargaining rights of letter carriers and other postal employees.
He said he made it clear to both Democrat and Republican leaders in Congress that the NALC will not support just any postal reform legislation.
“It has to be the right kind of postal reform,” Young said. “That means that NALC will strongly oppose any postal reform that undercuts the collective bargaining rights of America’s letter carriers and their union. Period.”
Regarding upcoming contract negotiations that will begin August 28 in Washington, Young said the union will seek pay increases that reward carriers for their contributions to the success of USPS and also to work to resolve workplace issues including establishing a better system of adjusting postal routes.
“It is my firm hope that we will be able to reach a negotiated agreement this fall, one that I can proudly send out to the members for ratification,” Young said.
Young called for “an unparalleled effort to elect a pro-labor Congress in the fall of 2006, made up of Democrats and Republicans alike, and a pro-labor president in 2008.”
