President Obama has now said he will support eliminating 6 day delivery of mail.  He thinks that is going to help save the post office.  That is not what got the post office into the financial predicament it is in and going to 5 day delivery will not save us.  UPS corporate officials have commented that their company would come in and pick up the slack for postal delivery on Saturday.  They have also commented that they could pick up the pieces after Postal Management shuts down post office in many communities across the country.

 Postmaster General Donohoe has been quoted as stating in 15 years we will probably be talking about 3 day delivery.  That makes being a city letter carrier a part-time job.  Part-time jobs give one no access to health care, sick pay, vacation pay, retirement benefits and usually come with a very low wage scale. Does it sound to you like the man who carries the title that Benjamin Franklin was the first to carry does not really give a tinker’s damn if the USPS survives as an agency of the federal government?  It certainly sounds that way to me.  You may ask why I care, my husband is retired under the civil service act and therefore gets a civil service retirement check every month.  People like California Representative Darrell Issa who can dismantle the USPS as we now know it, can dismantle the civil service act.  Retiree pensions can shrink or even disappear and there is no recourse unless their doing so is found unconstitutional.  The leadership of this union and its auxiliary have been telling you for years what could happen if you remained apathetic and were too miserly to contribute to COLCPE.  Now it is beginning and some of you will go to that leadership and say why didn’t you tell us.  There are none so deaf as those who refuse to listen. 

Some of you spouses who were “too busy” to join the auxiliary or felt that since your spouse “did nothing to support your career, so why should I support his” may well find yourselves the soul support of your families.  Most of you do not make anywhere near the salary that a “regular” city letter carrier makes.  Who do you think will be the first to be let go if lay-offs occur, the just hired or the guys who are making top salary and are just about ready for retirement but still have from 1-5 years to go------hey, from a business standpoint, you get rid of the most costly employee first------ that’s the latter.  You have been told for years that politicians only care about winning the next election and getting the money to do so.  We have all but gotten on our knees and begged you to join the auxiliary so that we could go to Congress and say we represent 15,000 letter carrier families in the state of Texas and our membership number is 45,000 (figuring every letter carrier has a least 3 people who are eligible to become auxiliary members) and we all vote and if you want our votes and our money you will vote to preserve the postal service and the city letter carriers.  There are none so deaf as those who refuse to listen.

If you want to save your job, your pension and your way of life, start being an active member of this union, start writing letters to congressional representatives, newspapers, national magazines like TIME and NEWSWEEK, start contributing to COLCPE----------it is a paltry $5 a pay period.  That is 1/5 of your hourly salary. 

Spouses and family members, if you do not want to find yourselves supporting your family on your salary only, join the auxiliary and become an activist.  Membership is $20 a year.  If you join now, you will not even have to pay dues until 2013.  We have been instrumental in the past at getting the 40 hour work week, uniform allowances, the living wage.  We can be effective in this latest effort but only if our numbers can get the attention of those passing the laws.

Tonya Lloyd, President

Auxiliary 111 and TSALCA

A MESSAGE FROM YOUR STATE AUXILIARY

Greetings to NALC members from all of us in the Texas State Association of Letter Carriers Auxiliary.  I want to thank you for the support you have given us .  Our National Association of Letter Carriers Auxiliary was established in 1905 to serve as your political arm and the Texas State Association of Letter Carriers Auxiliary was chartered October 16, 1926. 

Among the goals achieved by joint cooperation of the NALC and NALCA were:  The Sunday Closing Law; the 8-10 Hour Work Law; The Lloyd-Lafollette Anti-Gag Law; Workman’s Compensation Act; The Compensatory Time Laws;  Shorter Work Week; Federal Employees Life Insurance Act; Federal Employees Health Benefits Act; provision for substitute overtime pay and after 31 years, the first retirement bill was passed in 1920.  The NALCA also worked tirelessly to earn money to pay for the NALC building in Washington D.C., holding bake sales, raffles, garage sales.  We have lobbied Congress for and gotten a uniform allowance for letter carriers. 

Now that the active letter carrier is no longer bound by the restrictions of the Hatch Act, many carriers believe the auxiliary no longer matters but that is not true.  It cannot be stated any clearer that if the USPS goes to 5 day delivery, nearly one fifth of you will no longer have a job.   We must lobby Congress tirelessly, using letters and phone calls as well as those once yearly trips to DC to lobby in person.  We must point out that the loss of the USPS would be a catastrophic happening to this country in this economy.  Congressional members care about two things above all others-----getting re-elected, collecting enough money to make that happen.  If each and every letter carrier in the state of Texas signed up his/her spouse, parents, siblings, significant other, aunts, uncles, children, step-children, nieces and nephews over the age of 16,  we would have over 15000 members; coupled with the 15000 letter carriers, that is a lot of clout.   If you write a letter to your congressional representative or US Senator, you are 1 person; if you mention that you are 1 of 30,000 members of the TSALC and TSALCA, and we all want you to support us, that gets their attention.

THE TIME IS NOW-------HELP US HELP YOU. 

Tonya Lloyd, President