{"id":29347,"date":"2014-11-30T23:58:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T04:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.21cpw.com\/?p=29347"},"modified":"2014-12-01T00:26:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T05:26:21","slug":"us-postal-workers-fight-cutbacks-union-busting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.21cpw.com\/us-postal-workers-fight-cutbacks-union-busting\/","title":{"rendered":"US postal workers fight cutbacks, union busting"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Omaha_protest\"

Postal workers rally in front of Omaha, Neb., post office Nov. 14. Actions took place across U.S. that day to protest job cuts, outsourcing and other union-busting measures.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

BY MAGGIE TROWE<\/strong><\/em>
\nIn a national day of action organized by four postal unions Nov. 14, several thousand people demonstrated outside 150 U.S. Postal Service facilities in all 50 states to protest job cuts, outsourcing and other union-busting measures \u2014 as well as to defend the basic mail service that working people above all depend on.<\/p>\n

Nearly 200,000 postal jobs were cut between 2006 and 2013 and more than 140 mail-processing facilities have closed since 2012. Another 82 mail processing and distribution centers are on the chopping block for Jan. 5, 2015, and the Postal Service plans to virtually eliminate overnight delivery, as well as direct-to-door delivery in most new housing developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 100 jobs, including mine, will be abolished on my shift this week,\u201d Rinda Ma, a mail handler at the Pasadena, California, rally of 50, told the Militant<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir intention is to bust the unions,\u201d Maurice Anderson, a postal worker and shop steward in Hialeah, Florida, said as he passed out flyers at the action at the Pembroke Pines distribution center. \u201cThat\u2019s what the Staples deal is about,\u201d he said, referring to the Postal Service campaign to outsource some postal service to more than 1,500 Staples stores across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to use Staples as a knock-off post office, not using postal employees and not paying a living wage,\u201d said William Flanagan, one of 60 pickets at the central post office in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Two hundred gathered on the steps of the main post office in New York. \u201cWe\u2019ve organized informational pickets at 18 of the 23 Staples stores in Manhattan,\u201d Mike Suchomel said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want the workers at Staples to lose their jobs, and we\u2019re for expanding service, but they should become postal workers and get the same wages and benefits as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson said management is encouraging early retirement \u201cin order to save on benefits. The career employees are replaced by \u2018postal support employees,\u2019 who get less pay and benefits and don\u2019t have set hours and days off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some 250 filled the lobby of the Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. They chanted, \u201cLet us in!\u201d and \u201cYou might be next,\u201d when denied entry to the meeting of the Board of Governors where Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe was giving a report. Donohoe announced the same day his plan to retire early next year.<\/p>\n

Postal workers were joined by other unionists who support their fight, including members of the American Federation of Government Employees, Communications Workers of America, Amalgamated Transit Union, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Screen Actors Guild, Teamsters, Musicians Association, United Food and Commercial Workers and American Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n

via The Militant – December 8, 2014 — US postal workers fight cutbacks, union busting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MAGGIE TROWE In a national day of action organized by four postal unions Nov. 14, several thousand people demonstrated outside 150 U.S. Postal Service facilities in all 50 states to protest job cuts, outsourcing and other union-busting measures \u2014 as well as to defend the basic mail service that working people above all depend…<\/p>\n

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