Dear Letter Carriers,

Five weeks ago, I asked all members of this union to collect signatures in support of protecting the future of the United States Postal Service, and you delivered. From every corner of this country, from big cities and small towns, active and retired letter carriers alike gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures.

At last count, you and your brothers and sisters had collected more than 800,000 signatures in support of saving Saturday mail delivery service. Your work paid off, as the collective voice of these 800,000 Americans was not ignored.

Congratulations! Now, let’s keep going!

On Monday, the “super committee” on deficit reduction announced that it had reached an impasse and would not be issuing a recommendation to Congress on how to reduce the nation’s deficit by $1.2 trillion. But before that announcement, as the members of the committee worked to salvage a deal, the NALC learned that reducing mail delivery from six days to five was off the table. The good news is that our message got through to the 12 members of the super committee. The bad news is that, while we have we won this battle, the war is far from over. There are still hundreds of other members of Congress who need to hear that the American people do not support the elimination of a day of delivery, because there are two major bills pending before Congress which call for eliminating Saturday service.

Both bills, H.R. 2309 and S. 1789, have been approved by their respective committees and are now awaiting floor action. To ensure that Congress does not adopt drastic measures that would lead to the radical downsizing of the Postal Service, we need to continue to gather signatures from the American public. Let’s keep going—with a goal to get 1 million signatures by the end of the year.

Thank you for your continued efforts to educate customers about the impact eliminating a day of delivery and ending door-to-door delivery would have on their communities. It is because of your hard work that we can claim two victories: The super committee dropped the five-day delivery proposal, and H.R. 2309 has not yet been scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives.

Let’s ring in 2012 with 1 million petition signatures and the full support of the American people behind us as we fight for the future of the USPS.

I wish you and yours a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

In Solidarity,

Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers

Dear Letter Carriers,
 

I know that you and your fellow members are extremely busy with the task of collecting petitions to save Saturday delivery in advance of the Nov. 14 deadline to get them to NALC Headquarters. We need you to keep working on this important task.
 

But as I said at the rap session in Las Vegas, we are facing multiple legislative threats at present. We need to walk and chew gum at the same time because Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his right-wing allies in the House of Representatives are advancing H.R. 2309, a bill that would dismantle the Postal Service and gut our labor contract and our collective-bargaining rights. It is imperative that we engage and educate the American public about the need to defeat H.R. 2309 and Save America’s Postal Service.
 

On Oct. 13, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved H.R. 2309, which would eliminate Saturday mail delivery at a cost of 80,000 full- and part-time jobs, undermining the needs of millions of American businesses and residents that rely on six-day delivery. It would mandate the closing of thousands of post offices and end mail delivery to the doors of 90 percent of American households and businesses that now receive it. And it would create new layers of bureaucratic oversight with the authority to rip up and rewrite the collective-bargaining agreements of the nation’s postal employees.
 

H.R. 2309 is not a bill to save the Postal Service; it’s a bill to destroy it. Congressman Issa intends to bring this legislation to a floor vote as early as mid-November.
 

To prevent this devastating bill from ever becoming law, letter carriers across the country need to convince their family members, friends and neighbors to weigh in with members of Congress against H.R. 2309. We need to generate public opposition to this bill, not just union opposition. Indeed, we need you to target four key groups of potential allies in your communities – businesses, senior citizens' groups, veterans' organizations and faith leaders – and ask them to call their representatives and tell them why H.R. 2309 is a bad bill. Communities across America would be devastated by this bill and members of Congress need to hear this message from their constituents.
 

Below are links to information (flier, talking points, local press release) to help you rally members of your branch to call key allies and constituency groups, as well as their member of Congress, and urge representatives to vote "no" on H.R. 2309.
 

• Flier
   
• Talking points for potential allies
   
• Press release
   

On Sunday, Nov. 6, you will receive a phone call at 7:30 p.m. EST (4:30 p.m. PST) inviting you to join a teleconference that I will be hosting for tens of thousands of letter carriers across the country. Please accept this phone call at your home and stay on the line. I will use this opportunity to discuss the battles we are fighting to Save America’s Postal Service, and the specific actions needed to defeat H.R. 2309.
 

Thank you for what you are doing to protect our jobs and for doing what’s best for America.
 

In Solidarity,
 

Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers
 

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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