Burrus Update - An editorial by Gene Del Polito, president of PostCom, has been widely distributed in the postal community, and has elicited a range of commentary. I have responded directly to the initial editorial [letter to PostCom - PDF] and intend to include my response in the next issue of the APWU bimonthly magazine. But it is important that I also explain to the membership the logic behind the APWU’s general position on labor/management/mailer issues.

Mr. Del Polito confuses the role of a labor union with the responsibilities of management and the large mailers that dominate the mail stream. The American Postal Workers Union is responsible to its membership — period. We are conscious of and concerned about decisions that affect service and cost, but that is not our charter, and nowhere in our constitution do we address the satisfaction level of large mailers.

In our opinion, labor unions cross the line when they engage in helping to fill the role of employer. During the 1980s, many unions were seduced into believing that they had a meaningful voice in management decisions and took part in experimental initiatives. When the programs had run their course and management had achieved its objectives, employers unilaterally dumped those cooperative programs. They now reside with the ashes of other programs designed to fool workers into believing they would be making managerial decisions.

I never confuse my role as union president with the role of the postmaster general. It is his job to ensure reliable service, use technology to reduce cost, and constrain postage increases. My job is to maximize the return to employees for work performed. Mr. Del Polito can editorialize from now until Doomsday, but I leave to postal management the development of strategies to compete with the Internet, satisfy the mailers, and control costs.

Large mailers, like other industries, will make their business decisions based upon their self-interest, their bottom line. If they were motivated by loyalty to the Postal Service, they would have rejected e-mail, the Internet and other forms that use new technology, but, of course, they have not. When it has been in their interest, they have abandoned the Postal Service for more efficient and less costly means of communications — and will do so time and again in the future no matter what we do.

In a democracy, workers have the right to collective bargaining. Political administrations have enacted laws and regulations to dilute this basic right, but it continues as a means of dividing revenues between those who are physically responsible and those who own or control. In collective bargaining a deal is a deal. The process does not permit “do overs.” When you agree to wages and conditions of employment, you accept the outcome and move on. It is an imperfect system but the best that humans have devised. Mr. Del Polito embraces the process only to the extent that his employers benefit. But despite his criticism, APWU will continue to represent the interest of its members to the best of its ability.

Our union does not engage in cooperative programs; our union meetings and conventions are reserved for our members and those who are loyal to our causes. It is not our role to manage the Postal Service. We are not critical of those who see the world through a different lens, but that is who we are and we reject self-serving external evaluation.

The employees who we represent care deeply about the future of the United States Postal Service. But they expect their union to make their work more rewarding and leave to management the role of managing. And while we leave to Mr. Del Polito the constitutional right to express his opinions, we do have suggestions as to what he can do with them.

William Burrus
President