NALC Branch 193

The NALC e-Activist Network

Dear Letter Carriers,

Just now, the full House of Representatives voted to preserve six-day mail delivery appropriations language by passing H.R. 5016, the Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill.

As you know, the base bill was introduced last month without the six-day provision, which has been part of appropriations bills for decades. But following extensive lobbying efforts nationwide, that language was successfully reinserted into the bill that was approved on June 25 by the House Appropriations Committee, thanks to an amendment co-sponsored by Reps. José Serrano (D-NY) and Tom Latham (R-IA).

(It’s worth noting that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) last-ditch attempt to remove the language during the House rules process also was defeated.)

Today’s victory is a major one for the NALC and our activists who have pressured lawmakers—and continue to pressure them—to support six-day mail delivery.

With 15 days to go until Congress’ August recess, the window of opportunity for more legislative attacks is closing fast—at least during August. Nevertheless, we stand ready for anything that comes our way.

In solidarity,

Kori Blalock Keller
NALC Director of Legislative and Political Affairs

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The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
100 Indiana Avenue NW · Washington, DC 20001-2144
202-393-4695 · nalc.org

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FOURTH CONTRACT COLA

FOURTH CONTRACT COLA: Following the June 17 release of the May Consumer Price Index (CPI), the accumulation toward the fourth cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) under the 2011-2016 National Agreement is $645 annually. This COLA will be based on the increase in the CPI between January 2014 and July 2014 and will be effective in the second full pay period after the scheduled Aug. 19 release of the July 2014 CPI—that is, Pay Period 20
(pay date Sept. 26)

The NALC e-Activist Network

Dear Letter Carriers,

NALC Director of Legislative & Political Affairs Kori Blalock Keller is away this week, so I’m filling in for her with this legislative update.

For letter carriers, this has been a pretty good week on Capitol Hill. Here’s what’s been happening:

6-day language makes it into House appropriations bill: On Wednesday, the language mandating six-day mail delivery—intentionally left out of the draft version of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government’s Fiscal Year 2015 spending bill—was successfully reinserted into the measure that was approved on Wednesday by a voice vote of the full House Appropriations committee. Click here to read more.

6-day language already in Senate appropriations bill: On Tuesday, the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government approved its version of an FY2015 appropriations bill that also includes the language mandating that the Postal Service deliver the mail six days a week. That measure is expected to pass the full Senate Appropriations Committee. Click here to read more.

Bipartisan support for 6-day mail grows: The bipartisan majority of House members who support H. Res. 30 grew to 224 on Tuesday when Rep. David Price (R-NC) signed on as a co-sponsor. H. Res. 30 is a resolution “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of its 6-day mail delivery service.” Click here to read more.

Wrong by half: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its second look at the Postal Service’s projected savings from a reduction in mail service from six days to five and declared that USPS would save only about $10.9 billion over 10 years—about half of what the Postal Service projected would be saved by its modified plan. Click here to read more.

In Solidarity,

Jim Sauber
NALC Chief of Staff

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The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
100 Indiana Avenue NW · Washington, DC 20001-2144
202-393-4695 · nalc.org

The NALC e-Activist Network

Dear Letter Carriers,

Here’s an update on what’s been happening on Capitol Hill:

House leadership shelves Highway Trust Fund—USPS offset: The postal offset received a wide range of resistance from labor, businesses, the Heritage Foundation, and rank-and-file members of Congress, to name a few. It now appears that this idea has been shelved while House and Senate lawmakers scramble to find a more palatable fix. Click here to read more.

House subcommittee introduces appropriations measure without six-day language; House and Senate mark-ups next week: This week, the House Financial Services and General Government subcommittee released its Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. This bill has traditionally included language that preserves Saturday delivery. Unfortunately, Subcommittee Chairman Ander Crenshaw (R-FL) introduced the bill without our language. As a result, when the full appropriations committee marks up the bill this Wednesday, June 25, the language will have to be reinserted before it passes the committee. Before the mark-up, NALC will call on letter carriers represented by members of the House Appropriations Committee to contact representatives and urge them to support the amendment to reinsert six-day delivery. Click here to read more.

Shakeup in House leadership: On Thursday, House Republicans elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to become the new House majority leader, replacing Eric Cantor (R-VA), who unexpectedly lost his House seat in the Virginia GOP primary to college professor David Brat. McCarthy beat Tea Party candidate Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID). Click here to read more.

In Solidarity,

Kori Blalock Keller
NALC Director of Legislative and Political Affairs

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The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
100 Indiana Avenue NW · Washington, DC 20001-2144
202-393-4695 · nalc.org

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The NALC e-Activist Network

Dear Letter Carriers,

Once again, Congress is dropping the ball on postal reform. Rather than working on legislation that fixes the crisis it created with the 2006 mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits, and rather than formulating smart reforms that will allow the Postal Service to innovate and thrive in the 21st century, Congress instead focuses on counterproductive service cuts. This coming week, we face two new threats to Saturday delivery. Both are distractions from what Congress should be doing to fix the Postal Service.

Highway Trust Fund update: While the House was in recess this week, the noise surrounding temporarily financing the Highway Trust Fund through the elimination of six-day mail delivery hit a fever pitch. When the House returns next week, House Republican leaders are angling to bring their proposal up for floor consideration. Click here to read more.

Appropriations update: Unfortunately, the attack on six-day delivery is not limited to the Highway Trust Fund or pending postal reform legislation. The House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, is working behind the scenes to draft an appropriations bill. For the first time since 1983, they are reportedly considering a base bill that does not include our long-standing six-day appropriations language. At present, the subcommittee has not released its schedule for subcommittee markup, but it could come up as early as next week. Click here to read more.

In Solidarity,

Kori Blalock Keller
NALC Director of Legislative and Political Affairs

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The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
100 Indiana Avenue NW · Washington, DC 20001-2144
202-393-4695 · nalc.org

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The NALC e-Activist Network

Dear Letter Carriers,

It's been another busy week here in Washington, DC. Here’s an update:

HOUSE COMMITTEE MOVES DOOR DELIVERY ELIMINATION BILL: On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee introduced and approved the “Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014” (H.R. 4670) along a party-line vote. The bill calls for requiring the Postal Service to eliminate door delivery for 15 million addresses by forcing 1.5 million households and businesses to convert from door delivery to curbside or cluster boxes every year over the next 10 years. Click here to read more.

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS INNOVATION HEARING: On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census held a hearing titled “Examining Innovative Postal Products for the 21st Century.” The hearing witnesses—including representatives from the Postal Service, Outbox Inc., Stamps.com, M-pack Systems and Newgistics Inc., as well as USPS Inspector General David Williams—discussed new opportunities to generate more revenue and business, as well as their concerns over the USPS’ response to private-sector business needs. Click here to read more.

SENATE ADVANCES TAX DELINQUENCY BILL: On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee approved legislation (S. 1045) that would allow for the termination of federal employees and postal employees who are seriously delinquent on their tax debt. The bill would also make applicants who have “seriously delinquent tax debts” ineligible for federal employment. Click here to read more.

UPDATE ON SOMBROTTO POST OFFICE DESIGNATION: The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was scheduled to take up a package of postal designation bills on Wednesday, including H.R. 2291, which was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) last year to designate the New York City Post Office located at 450 Lexington Avenue in New York City as the "Vincent R. Sombrotto Post Office,” in honor of the NALC’s long-serving national president, who died in 2013. Click here to read more.

In Solidarity,

Kori Blalock Keller
NALC Director of Legislative and Political Affairs

If you wish to unsubscribe from the NALC e-Activist Network, please click here.

The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
100 Indiana Avenue NW · Washington, DC 20001-2144
202-393-4695 · nalc.org

Follow us:

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Letter Carriers' Food Drive Day

2nd Vice President of Branch 193, Ernie Arrañaga had the honor in representing NALC Branch 193, in accepting a proclamation making May 10, 2014 "Letter Carriers' Food Drive Day" in the city of San Jose.

" I would like to extend a great deal of thanks to Councilmember Ash Kalra for making this possible, to Mayor Reed, Councilmember Kansen Chu, and the rest of the City Council. Thank you for your support!"

Ernie Arrañaga, 2nd V.P. Branch 193

March 12, 2014—The Postal Service has announced the deployment of a new Mobile Delivery Device (MDD) to be used by letter carriers. The device, from Honeywell, will transmit scan data in real time and will replace the current Intelligent Mail Device (IMD) and paired cell phone. For detailed information on the new MDD, read an advance copy of Director of City Delivery Brian Renfroe's April 2014 Postal Record article here.

March 11, 2014—Declaring that “the U.S. Postal Service is under unprecedented attack,” the four postal unions have formed an alliance to fight back to preserve America's postal service for the benefit of the public. Click here to read more.

March 5, 2014—President Obama’s 2015 budget proposals not only fail to address the main source of the Postal Service’s problems, they also directly threaten nearly 100,000 good postal jobs at a time when the Postal Service’s finances have rebounded strongly. “The Office of Management and Budget remains under the spell of a misguided postmaster general, a leader who seems committed to sticking to an obsolete austerity plan devised in very different circumstances,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “OMB has lazily produced a weak, job-killing postal reform plan that Congress should soundly reject.” Click here to read more.

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FOURTH CONTRACT COLA

Following the March 18 release of the February Consumer Price Index (CPI), the accumulation toward the fourth cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) under the 2011-2016 National Agreement is$122 annually. This COLA will be based on the increase in the CPI between January 2014 and July 2014 and will be effective in the second full pay period after the reoease of the July 2014 CPI.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

In 2014, both of the deferred 2013 COLAs, $146 annually and $541 annually, will be added to the Step O pay rates in Table 2 of the Pay Schedule, which applies to City Carriers hired in career positions on or after January 13, 2013. The pay rates of Steps A through N of Table 2 will be increased proportionally, as provided by the contract. For example, Step A is set at 61.5% of Step O, so the COLA for Grade 1, Step A is $333 annually.

RETIREE COLA

The accumulation toward the 2015 cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for both Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) was 0.2 percent following the March. 18 release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February. The 2015 COLA will be based on the increase in the average CPI between the 3rd quarter of 2013 and the 3rd quarter of 2014.

Click here for further details about the retiree COLA.

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