Norton Votes Against Anti-Labor, Cuts-Only Postal Bill, and Calls for Balanced Restructuring
September 21, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a member of the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy, today at a subcommittee markup voted against H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 2011, the House Republicans' anti-labor, cuts-only postal reform bill that fails to inject the innovation that is needed to help the postal service to operate more like a private entity. The Republican bill would give a new commission the authority to unilaterally undo existing collective bargaining agreements, an unprecedented abuse of power, and to cut workers, services and facilities without taking into account the needs of the millions of Americans who rely on the Postal Service. "Instead of introducing a bill that would return the Postal Service to profitability and give it the flexibility and the authority to innovate in order to continue to provide existing and new services to Americans in the 21st century, Republicans are using the serious financial challenges confronting the Postal Service for a wholesale attack on unions and collective bargaining," said Norton. "The postal service must be restructured, but it will take harder, smarter ideas than pulling all the savings from workers and consumers." Norton plans to offer amendments at the full committee meeting to preserve workers' collective bargaining rights and to ensure that every community has easy access to a postal facility.
Norton praised the Postal Service reform proposals of President Obama and Ranking Members Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA), which credit the Postal Service for the billions of dollars in overpayments that the Office of Personnel Management and the Postal Service Inspector General have confirmed were made into the federal retirement fund, restructures the Postal Service's pre-funding of retiree health care benefits, and give the Postal Service the flexibility to provide a broader array of products and services. "I look forward to working closely with the ranking members to return the postal service to profitability through a balanced restructuring," Norton said.
On Tuesday, September 27, 2011, from 4:00-5:30 p.m., Norton is scheduled to speak at the Save America's Postal Service rally at 529 14th Street NW, Suite 900.
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