Norton’s Postal Amendment Encourages Collective Bargaining

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) got one of the only Democratic amendments passed in today's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform markup of a major Postal Service bill, H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act. The Norton amendment, adopted by voice vote, was a victory for collective bargaining and for her plea for continued collective bargaining as the best way to downsize the Postal Service, considering that collective bargaining has already succeeded in downsizing workforce by 100,000 employees over the past four years, for a total of $12 billion in savings. The amendment used some of the words that the Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) had himself used at a prior hearing, promising respect for benefits that postal employees had won. Although the Norton amendment, a Sense of the Congress provision, does not carry the full force and effect of law, it does carry weight. Norton believes that her amendment will encourage the use of collective bargaining during restructuring.

Norton, who is fighting against the closure of post offices in the District, remains concerned that at least some post offices across the nation will close. Therefore, she offered a separate amendment that would, where feasible, require basic postal services to be provided in places of business, such as in grocery stores, that are located in close proximity to post offices that are closed. Norton said, "Party-line Republican votes against this amendment were gratuitous and unnecessary because it required that the Postal Service find an alternative location for postal services near closed post offices only when feasible and that these locations offer only basic services, such as selling stamps and money orders." Most of the post offices in D.C. on a tentative list to be closed are in congressional or other federal facilities, but she is fighting hard against the closure of neighborhood post offices.

The Republican bill creates a commission, similar to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, that will determine which post offices will be closed. The bill hands Postal Service management to an authority, which is effectively a receivership if the Postal Service defaults on a payment. The bill rescinds negotiated terms of collective bargaining agreements, and ignores agreements regarding reductions in force. The bill does not recognize billions of dollars in overpayments by workers into their retirement fund, and establishes a workers' compensation program that is much less generous than the one for other federal employees, despite the fact that working conditions of postal workers are far tougher than for the average federal employee. The bill also allows for more fast-tracked facility closures, without providing for postal service alternatives, eliminates procedural protections for closures, and does nothing to resolve the pension payment schedule, which requires 100 percent pre-funding of pensions, something required of no government agency.

###