Recent news reports have indicated that leaders of the House and Senate committees that have approved postal “reform” bills are hoping for a vote on final passage to occur before Congress’ July 4th recess. Toward that end, the leaders of the two panels have instructed their staffs to work informally to resolve differences between the versions of the bills passed in the House and Senate. The legislators have also been working to address the demands by the White House that the bills be “budget neutral.”

In an Update earlier this year (#03-2006, Jan. 25), I opined that the postal reform bills that had passed in the House and Senate “will not achieve the stated objectives and will be more harmful than continuing operations under current law.” I have been informed that leaders of other postal organizations took exception to the APWU position and made disparaging references about our stand on these issues. I will leave mudslinging to those who feel comfortable in the mud, while reserving the absolute right of the APWU to express our positions independently from others who have a different point of view.

The APWU position on postal reform remains unchanged: The current legislation will not benefit the USPS or postal employees. The Postal Service’s objective in promoting “reform” was to win freedom from burdensome rules governing postage rate increases. But the relaxation of rules on rate-changing is outweighed by the restrictions imposed by rate caps, which are enshrined in both the House and Senate versions of legislation.

Of course, there is nothing in the proposed legislation that would increase first-class mail volume, which traditionally rises and falls with the ups and downs of the American economy. The decline in first-class mail volume often has been cited as the reason postal “reform” was necessary.
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