From NALC President William Young:
In last year’s postal reform bill, we secured our collective bargaining rights. The ability to form a union and to negotiate collectively ensures workplace fairness and a decent standard of living. Every American worker should have that ability. It is especially important to letter carriers that workers from competing delivery companies have that ability – if they work for low wages and receive few benefits, our position at the bargaining table is damaged.
Unfortunately, tens of thousands of Federal Express workers are effectively denied the right to organize a union because of a loophole in the law that permits FedEx to classify its delivery workers as “airline employees,” even though they never go close to an airport. As such, they are covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which makes organizing a union almost impossible – you have to win a national ballot instead of building a union location by location, as permitted by the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA). Workers at the Postal Service, UPS and other delivery companies are covered by the NRLA.
But we can do something about this injustice today. Sen. Tom Harkin, who has led the battle against contracting out our jobs, has introduced an amendment to the pending Labor-HHS appropriation bill to require that all express delivery workers who do not work at or near airports be covered by the NLRA, not the RLA. This weekend the Senate is working on that appropriations bill.
I write to urge you to take a few minutes this weekend to contact Senator Bill Nelson to ask him to support the Harkin Amendment. Call Sen. Nelson at 202.224-5274 (www.billnelson.senate.gov) Tell him that NALC supports the Harkin Amendment to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill and that letter carriers in Florida want fairness for FedEx workers and a level playing field for the Postal Service. If you can’t get through this weekend, call as early as possible on Monday, December 10. A vote is expected early next week.
As I said at our recent National Training Conference, our standard of living will be threatened if we do not help rebuild the Middle Class in America. Strengthening the labor movement is the most important thing we can do to advance that cause. I hope I can count on you to do your part by calling Senator Nelson in support of the Harkin Amendment as soon as possible.
In last year’s postal reform bill, we secured our collective bargaining rights. The ability to form a union and to negotiate collectively ensures workplace fairness and a decent standard of living. Every American worker should have that ability. It is especially important to letter carriers that workers from competing delivery companies have that ability – if they work for low wages and receive few benefits, our position at the bargaining table is damaged.
Unfortunately, tens of thousands of Federal Express workers are effectively denied the right to organize a union because of a loophole in the law that permits FedEx to classify its delivery workers as “airline employees,” even though they never go close to an airport. As such, they are covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which makes organizing a union almost impossible – you have to win a national ballot instead of building a union location by location, as permitted by the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA). Workers at the Postal Service, UPS and other delivery companies are covered by the NRLA.
But we can do something about this injustice today. Sen. Tom Harkin, who has led the battle against contracting out our jobs, has introduced an amendment to the pending Labor-HHS appropriation bill to require that all express delivery workers who do not work at or near airports be covered by the NLRA, not the RLA. This weekend the Senate is working on that appropriations bill.
I write to urge you to take a few minutes this weekend to contact Senator Bill Nelson to ask him to support the Harkin Amendment. Call Sen. Nelson at 202.224-5274 (www.billnelson.senate.gov) Tell him that NALC supports the Harkin Amendment to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill and that letter carriers in Florida want fairness for FedEx workers and a level playing field for the Postal Service. If you can’t get through this weekend, call as early as possible on Monday, December 10. A vote is expected early next week.
As I said at our recent National Training Conference, our standard of living will be threatened if we do not help rebuild the Middle Class in America. Strengthening the labor movement is the most important thing we can do to advance that cause. I hope I can count on you to do your part by calling Senator Nelson in support of the Harkin Amendment as soon as possible.
In Solidarity,
William H. Young
President
Young released similar letters for Arkansas and Nebraska:
Arkansas: I write to urge you to take a few minutes this weekend to contact your Senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, to ask them to support the Harkin Amendment. Call Sen. Pryor at 202-224-2353 (www.pryor.senate.gov) and Sen. Lincoln at 202-224-4843 (www.lincoln.senate.gov).
Nebraska: I write to urge you to take a few minutes this weekend to contact Senator Ben Nelson to ask him to support the Harkin Amendment. Call Sen. Nelson at 202-224-6551 (www.bennelson.senate.gov).