Which side are you on?

William H. Young, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers wrote an editorial in the June Postal Record in response to this question.

On April 17, Young was among a dozen or more people called to testify at a House oversight hearing on the Postal Service. As he listened to those present, the answer to the question, which side are you on was, in his words, "astonishing."

On the NALC';s side were Rural Carriers and Mail Handlers, most members of the subcommittee and "here is the first astonishing part--all three postal management associations, NAPS, NAPUS and League of Postmasters."

"On the Postal Service's side were Postmaster General Jack Potter, Board Chairman James C. Miller III, the usual right-wing think tanks and [the second most astonishing part] the APWU."

At issue is the APWU lobbing against the consolidation of mail postal facilities where as the NALC supports H.R.2177. Young's position is there is no correlation between optimizing the automation process and hiring low-wage, no-benefit, part-time, non-union contractors to perform bargaining unit work.

Which side are you on? There should be no sides in this issue. As the NAPS President, Ted Keating said, [contracting out letter carrier work] "will be the death of the Postal Service." Why aren't we all standing together?

To read the entire article follow this link: http://www.nalc.org/news/precord/pres-index.html on click on "June 2007"

Thank you Ella and Vince.