MICHIGAN RURAL LETTER CARRIER'S ASSOCIATION
July 29, 2010, the full Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Financial Services and General Government’s Fiscal 2011 Appropriations bill by an 18-12 vote. Included in the recently passed bill is the provision mandating 6 day mail delivery. The House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee also passed their Fiscal 2011 Appropriations bill by voice vote on July 29. The House approved bill also requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days a week. The next step for the two bills is for the full Senate and House to approve the legislation, then any differences between the two bills must be ironed out.
Link to Michigan State Government
S. 1507 Passes Out of Senate with Anti-Labor Amendment
As many of you already know, last Thursday, July 30, the Homeland
Security and Government Affairs Committee marked up S. 1507, a bill
to provide temporary financial relief to the United States Postal
Service by allowing them to pay for retiree health benefits from the
Retiree Health Benefits fund, rather than operating funds. The bill
is based on a draft offered by the Administration and the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). When this draft legislation was
originally submitted, the NRLCA and the other postal unions supported
the bill as introduced in the Senate.
Unfortunately, when S. 1507 went into mark up, the Committee accepted
an amendment offered by Senator Coburn that instructs an arbitrator to
take into account the financial health of the USPS when deciding
postal contracts. S. 1507 with the arbitrator language included
essentially takes the “neutral” out of the neutral arbitrator. Despite the
NRLCA’s opposition to S. 1507 with the arbitrator language
included, the committee reported S. 1507 favorably by a vote of 12-1
(Senator Akaka of Hawaii was the only Senator to vote against this
legislation with the arbitrator provision included).
While the NRLCA agrees that the USPS needs financial relief, we cannot
support S. 1507 as voted out of committee that includes an anti-labor
provision. The employees are not the reason the postal service faces
economic distress, and they shouldn’t be saddled with the USPS
recovery.. There are a number of factors the USPS is facing its
current financial crisis including: 1) the current recession has hit
the industries that rely heavily on mail (housing, real estate, and
banking) to drastically reduced the volume of mail being sent and 2)
as part of the 2006 Postal Reform Law signed by the previous
administration, an aggressive pre-payment schedule for retiree health
benefits requires the USPS to contribute $56 billion by 2016.
We encourage all of you to contact your Senators and ask them to
oppose S. 1507. If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate
to contact the Legislative Department.
Thanks,
NRLCA Legislative Department
ADDRESSES OF MICHIGAN'S STATE SENATORS OFFICES
Carl Levin's Michigan Offices
DETROIT
Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building
477 Michigan Avenue
Suite 1860
Detroit, MI 48226-2576
TRAVERSE CITY
107 Cass Street
Suite E
Traverse City, MI 49684-2602
ESCANABA
524 Ludington Street
Suite LL-103
Escanaba, MI 49829-3949
SAGINAW
515 N. Washington Avenue
Suite 402
Saginaw, MI 48607-1370
GRAND RAPIDS
Gerald R. Ford Federal Building
110 Michigan Street, NW
Suite 720
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2313
WARREN
30500 Van Dyke Avenue
Suite 206
Warren, MI 48093-2109
LANSING
124 W. Allegan Street
Suite 1810
Lansing, MI 48933-1716
Debbie Stabenow's Michigan Offices
Mid-Michigan Office
Senator Debbie Stabenow
221 W. Lake Lansing Road, Suite 100
East Lansing, MI 48823
Southeast Michigan Office
243 W.Congress Suite 550
Detroit, MI 48226
Western Michigan Office
3280 Beltline Court, Suite 400
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
Flint/Saginaw Bay Area Office
2503 South Linden Rd.
Flint, MI 48532
Upper Peninsula Office
1901 W. Ridge
Marquette, MI 49855
Northern Michigan Office
3335 South Airport Road West Suite 6B
Traverse City, MI 49684