Take Action

Are you in Representative Greg Walden’s district?  Know someone who is? (Click here to check)

Help save your Post Office!

Representative Walden hasnot taken a stance on HR 1351, the bill which essentially saves the Postal Service – including ensuring our rural post offices stay in business.

Call Walden’s office (541-389-4408) and ask if he’s willing to protect the hardworking women and men in our Postal Service.

Is the Postal Service going Bankrupt?

The short answer is no.  Sure, the Postal Service is in trouble, but Washington DC politics are to blame – not mismanagement, or the internet and email.

Here’s the bottom line, when it comes to the Postal Service’s bottom line:

No private company in America is required to pre-fund retiree health benefits – you pay as you go.  But thanks to a policy change in 2006 the Postal Service has had to divert $47 billion from their operating costs to cover future retirees’ benefits.  Some companies voluntarily do this, but they build up to it over years.  The Postal Service has been forced to pre-pay 80 percent of future retiree costs in just ten short years.  

Even when the recession hit in 2008, the mandate continued.  Had this not been the case, the Postal Service would have been profitable through the entire recession.   In September, the next payment of $5.5 billion is due – and in a recession where business (and therefore business shipping) is down, there just isn’t that much extra in the bank.   While things look grim, there is a solution.

To solve the crisis, keep our mail coming and protect jobs, a bipartisan group of 181 members of the House proposed HR 1351.  This resolution changes the way that the Postal Service’s surplus is measured, and how those funds can be used.  It would save our Postal Service.

If you’re interested in fighting for the good jobs that the Postal Service creates and the invaluable services they provide, please see this week’s Take Action section to learn how to join the fight.

In Other News...

Wisconsin-Style Recall in Rockaway

Two months ago, members of AFSCME local 2374-1 (the City of Rockaway Beach) along with their community partners set out to gather enough signatures to trigger a recall election for two members of their City’s government. The recall efforts targeted Mayor Dennis Porter and City Councilor Rodney Breazile, who had sought to cut the city budget by 15% even though they had enough money to cover costs, and to coerce the City Manager into terminating represented employees to find those savings.

The past two weeks saw Rockaway residents mailing in ballots to vote for or against the recall.  70% of the community turned out to vote in an off-year special election, and a strong majority voted in favor of removing the Mayor and City Councilor from office!   This is a great lesson for Oregon’s middle class: By working together and pushing back, we can hold our leaders accountable and make change happen in our communities.

Labor Day 2011

From Medford to Portland we saw great turnout at our Labor Day picnics this year!  Thank you to everyone who organized, cooked and helped out with a picnic.  We’ve got photos from three picnics available on our website, http://www.oraflcio.org/.  To have your photos added, please send an email to Russell@oraflcio.org.  Let us know how your event was on our Facebook page.