{"id":3778,"date":"2019-07-15T00:11:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T00:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/?p=3778"},"modified":"2019-07-25T00:13:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T00:13:57","slug":"grand-alliance-holds-congressional-briefing-to-defend-public-postal-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/?p=3778","title":{"rendered":"Grand Alliance Holds Congressional Briefing to Defend Public Postal Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 15, A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service<\/em>\u00a0held a Congressional briefing at the United States Capitol.<\/p>\n

The briefing\u2019s three-member panel included APWU President Mark Dimondstein, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Associate Fellow Scott Klinger, and National Coalition on Black Civic Participation President and CEO Melanie Campbell. The panelists discussed the ongoing attacks on the public Postal Service, the public Postal Service\u2019s importance to our country, and the legislative action needed to alleviate the financial burden mandated by the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA).<\/p>\n

President Dimondstein discussed how the mandate reduced service quality and harmed workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPostal workers are extremely dedicated to their jobs, the mission and the public we serve,\u201d Dimondstein said. \u201cYet behind the \u2018defunding\u2019 created by the PAEA and the resulting degrade of services, we have lost 200,000 jobs. We now have less career jobs and have seen implemented lower career wage rates, ever-increasing health insurance premiums, the stress of short staffing and more dangerous working conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klinger, who co-authored IPS\u2019s new report, \u201cHow Congress Manufactured a Postal Crisis \u2013 And How to Fix it,<\/a>\u201d discussed the uniquely disastrous prefunding mandate, a burden faced by no other public agency or private company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [PAEA] had no basis in reality and no basis in accounting practice,\u201d Klinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot like if you go to a bank and apply for a credit card, and them telling you, \u2018okay, we\u2019ll give you a credit card, but first you have to open up an account and put $500,000 into it because that\u2019s what we figure you\u2019re going to spend over the remaining years of your lifetime.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell discussed the need to defend the Postal Service\u2019s universal obligation to serve every community.<\/p>\n

\u201cA robbery is in process. The robbery that I speak of is the attempt, by this administration, to steal the people\u2019s Postal Service,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThe U.S. Postal Service belongs to the American people, and it has served all communities \u2013 rural, small towns, urban, and suburban \u2013 since 1775.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell also discussed how the USPS has provided a pathway to the middle class for African-American workers.<\/p>\n

In closing remarks, Dimondstein argued that the most important step to take is passing of H.R. 2382, the USPS Fairness Act, to fully repeal the prefunding mandate. \u201cThere is so much more that we can do. And to do it, we need to have the financial manufactured crisis fixed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 15, A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service\u00a0held a Congressional briefing at the United States Capitol. The briefing\u2019s three-member panel included APWU President Mark Dimondstein, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Associate Fellow Scott Klinger, and National Coalition on Black Civic Participation President and CEO Melanie Campbell. The panelists discussed the ongoing attacks on the public Postal Service, the public Postal Service\u2019s importance to our country, and the legislative action needed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-grand-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3779,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions\/3779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}