The National Presidents' Conference of the American Postal Workers Union passed a resolution this weekend --

"RESOLVED: That this meeting of the National Presidents Conference go on record as encouraging APWU state and local organizations to work in coalitions with other unions and with community groups, to continue our struggle to generate grassroots support for preserving postal services and jobs, and be it further:

RESOLVED: That this body encourage APWU state and local organizations to participate, wherever practicable, in support of actions designed to rally public support for the preservation of postal services and jobs, such as the March 24 NALC Day of Action.

Communities and Postal Workers United calls on all postal unions and the public to rally in the cities designated by the NALC (go to www.nalc.org for location near you )   The immediate focus on Saving Six-Day Delivery must be joined with the struggle to stop plant consolidations, stop the service reductions, sale and closures of post offices, stop and reverse privatization of postal trucking and custodian jobs, stop the delay of mail and return delivery standards.  The USPS is being attacked on all sides and must be defended with a unified front.  Bring the whole message to March 24th actions -- No Closures, No Cuts, No Delay of Mail.
Congress, the President and the Postmaster General must be shown the massive support of the American people for their constitutionally mandated postal service.

Fundamentally flawed

The Postal Service's proposal to drop a day of delivery is not the solution to its financial problems

The Postal Service laid out a wide-ranging—some would say radical—plan in March for coping with its current economic problems and future business challenges. It featured headline-grabbing initiatives, such as eliminating Saturday mail delivery, and more mundane, nuts-and-bolts proposals, like streamlining the regulatory process.

The NALC supports many of the plan’s recommendations and goals, especially relief from the burden of accelerated pre-funding of retiree health care and recovery of CSRS pension fund overcharges. [Full Story]

Rolando Cautions Congress Against Harmful Changes by Postal Service

WASHINGTON - Letter Carriers’ union President Fredric V. Rolando urged Congress today to ensure that structural changes being made in U.S. Postal Service operations due to the nation’s current economic crisis do not cause more harm than good over the long term to its mission of delivering mail to the American people.

Rolando, who assumed the presidency of the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO) on July 4 following the retirement of past President William H. Young, cited a current study by the Postal Service of reducing mail delivery to five days a week, and also its ongoing postal branch and station optimization program.

“Down-sizing to meet depression-level demand without considering the long-term impacts on the ability of the Postal Service to meet new demands when the economy recovers, would be short-sighted,” Rolando told a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia.

“Short-term savings that undermine the Postal Service’s capacity to offer new services and to take advantage of future growth opportunities such as Vote by Mail, e-commerce deliveries, and other potential uses of our incomparable delivery network would be self-defeating,” Rolando added.

Rolando emphasized the NALC’s long history of working with postal management to improve efficiency and adjust to change, including a new dispute resolution process, health and safety initiatives, and the automatic sequencing of letter mail. He noted that the union and management are currently engaged in a joint process to adjust delivery routes in response to the steep decline in mail volume resulting from the current economic crisis.

Rolando said the Postal Service and Congress must look ahead to new ways of boosting postal revenue, using its unmatched delivery network to expand a whole range of valuable services, including everything from Vote by Mail elections to a recent Congressional proposal to use letter carriers to conduct the next Census.

“That is why we must be careful with branch and station consolidations and reject drastic proposals like the elimination of Saturday delivery,” Rolando added. “The cost of lost opportunities from service cuts and other operational changes must be recognized.”

He said Congress can help in the short term by reforming the way the Postal Service prefunds its future retiree health benefits and noted that the current prefunding provisions are both “unaffordable and unreasonable,” costing the Service billions of dollars annually.

Overhauling the prefunding policy and reforming the OPM’s (Office of Personnel Management) policies with respect to the Postal Service must be a part of this reform if the Postal Service is to continue to provide affordable, universal postal service,” the postal union leader concluded.

Rolando Elevated to Letter Carriers’ Presidency

WASHINGTON - Fredric V. Rolando assumed the presidency of the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO) today, following the retirement of William H. Young after more than 6 1/2 years as head of the postal union.

Rolando, 56, a member of Sarasota, Florida NALC Branch 2148, moved up from his position as the union’s executive vice president under terms of the union’s constitution.

The new president began his postal career 31 years ago as a letter carrier in South Miami, Florida. Holder of a degree in criminology and psychology from Florida International University, he became active in the union because of what he said was the antagonistic way management treated letter carriers.

Recently, Rolando has focused on working with officials of the U.S. Postal Service to restructure delivery routes of mail carriers in a manner that protected their contractual rights as employees while allowing the Postal Service to have flexibility to meet the financial challenges posed by changing communications technology and the economic crisis.

He was first elected to national office as Director of City Delivery by acclamation at the 2002 NALC Convention in Philadelphia, having been appointed to that post in February 2002 by former President Vincent R. Sombrotto to fill a vacancy.

As a member of South Florida Branch 1071, his first union post was as a shop steward in South Miami where he worked. When Rolando relocated to Sarasota in 1984, he soon became chief steward there, and in 1988 was elected president of Sarasota Branch 2148. Rolando later served as director of education for the Florida State Association of Letter Carriers and as a full-time Regional Administrative Assistant for NALC’s Atlanta Region before coming to Washington as a national officer. Rolando and his wife, Jolene, currently reside in Fredericksburg, Virginia. They have two daughters and two sons.

Source: NALC