With Regrets
On this date, August 8, 2012, I delivered to Elizabeth Powell the plaque bestowed upon me by the delegates to the 2010 national convention granting the Emeritus title awarded upon my retirement accompanied by the following letter:
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Elizabeth Powell
Secretary Treasurer
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
Dear Liz,
I am returning the plaque awarded to me upon my retirement and relinquishing the title of President Emeritus of the American Postal Workers Union. As you recall, I did not solicit this award, but proudly accepted it as a token for my contributions to APWU members over a long career. The award has become an issue in my criticism of union decisions that will seriously affect postal employees and I cannot in good faith continue the ceremonial title with the expectations of solidarity. I strongly oppose the damage done to postal employment and the residual effect on employees. The Los Angeles convention will consider monumental issues that will decide the future of the union and I do not want to serve as a distraction to issues of substance and consequence.
I accepted the award on behalf of my contributions over a 53 year career and its return does not reverse the many positive changes that I succeeded in implementing. My interest was and continues to be the well-being of postal employees who satisfied my career goals and made my successful life possible. The record of changes that I succeeded in implementing while serving the union are unaffected by this decision, and I can proudly say they were my best.
In solidarity
William Burrus
Goofey:
Another 5.2 Million Loss and you want work returned to the
clerk craft??? What work??? You are lucky if there is any clerk
craft left when the smoke clears. Let your members retire with
an Incentive, and don’t bullshit us that the USPS did not make
any offers and it is all informal. We would suggest you make
it FORMAL real quick and help you members out like you were
elected to do, forget the holding of members hostage to get
back some fanthom work that will disappear as quickly as it
appears even if the USPS were to give you it back. Stop
worrying about parties and convention and start worrying about
your members you ONE TERMER or shorter.
I think all the unions should join together to form 1 union during these troubling times the more voices the better.
Hey Mel you dipshit…….I don’t have the age and they won’t let me go! I need to be 56 and I am 55. I started when I was 19……..so please before you open your mouth….THINK!
Whereas: The APWU membership continues to shrink at drastic rates.
Whereas: The amount of National Resident Officers has not decreased at all while their represented members have.
Whereas: Compared to our sister Postal Labor organizations we are exceptionally top heavy with National Officers.
The above is being proposed at his year’s national drinking & pin trading convention. At least someone in the apwu recognizes the excess at 1300 L Street NW. To the above I would add that they should eliminate the regional coordinator positions and assign their tasks to the state organizations. It’s all the same to usps. They don’t give a fat rats ass who in the union they have to notify when offices are closed or bodies excessed. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do regardless. Union is worthless and weak and full of opportunists who don’t want to be excessed.
“Englebert.”..SHUTup. And “WTF” you got 37+ ,wtf is the problem? You broke?Just go nobody owes you anything. Thanx Bill for a job well done.
Mr. Burrus,
Good job Mr. Burrus.As a teenager,In 1070, I saw the postal employees picketing IN OUR CITY for raises, and a contract. All of you put your jobs and life on the line for us! Now there is a Great slit between our members,active, retired and our National leaders.
It is so sad to see that for all of your years of service, and the years of every person that dared to stand up for me and the negative members that blasts you, have the nerve to disrepect you.I feel that the current National leaders may be One Term Leaders.Our current contract is sad but the language is written. Management is on plan B WHILE OUR NATIONAL AND lOCAL UNION FALLS. PRAYERS FOR OUR UNION
Biil did not “bail out” on the contract negotiations. He did offer his services to Guffey and crew – but they chose not to accept his offer.
I do not believe that it would not have made any difference if they would have accepted because the Guffey-Morris crew had their agenda and were in firm control via the electoral process of the union. They had been waiting in the wings for years for the right moment – but they forgot Bill’s admonishment of “Do no harm.” If you are going to change things always look at all of the ramifications both positive and negative and weigh them before you agree – it is quite clear that these cats were more interested in staking out their territory than anything else. Management saw them coming and were prepared for them and led them into the trap and they took the bait.
The Rank and File Committee is handpicked by these people and any outcome would be that which is desired by the people who appointed them to the Committee.
Being a union official is a position of trust and one has to understand the class struggle and not fall into the trap of the Stockholm Syndrome and class collaboration as this is what has destroyed the labor movement in this country. This is what is destroying the APWU.
But, then, they had a second chance during the ratification process when the PMG and the BOG exposed themselves before Congress – the Guffey-Morris crew could have stopped the ratification of this contract, but they continued to sell it as the next best thing since sliced bread. And 75% of the membership that voted bought it!
And even, now, as the situation continues to deteriorate and it becomes more and more apparent that the deal has gone rotten – they continue to sell it as the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to and for the APWU Bargaining Unit. And even though it is apparent that Guffey-Morris and crew have no clothes – the majority of the NPC claim they do!
In the meantime, the people that they represent are being driven deeper and deeper into the abyss and it just remains for the executioner to pull the level that springs the trap on the gallows that we have placed ourselves on as a union.
Is it too late for them to admit that they were taken to the cleaners or will their vanity prevail as it has to date? Will they admit that they were misled and in turn misled the membership?
The harm is done and there is no going back. The harm was done. The question is whether the APWU can survive it.
Bill understood this. The attack on his emeritus title that was made in Ashville was because of his speaking truth to power regarding the harm done to our union by this Administration and that going beyond the closed doors of meetings on issues is wrong and that “solidarity” is “my union right or wrong” – well, that is why we are in the mess that we are in and any changes made by this convention will be too little and too late.
Will the patient come out of the coma – or is the patient brain dead and is it time to unplug the machine?
President Burris is a class act unlike the rest of you clowns who have an ax to grind with management and love to blame the union. I suppose you all voted for this contract and the current president also. You cannot blame President Burris for that. I, for one, appreciate President Burris input since our current president has really nothing to say except ” write your representatives” and has decided to use your jobs as pawns to get management to comply with the contract. That is what the grievance procedure is for. I, for one, know that payment of dues is not reflected on every little slight on the workroom floor but when it comes to our representation as a whole at the Executive Board level decisions we expect answers and action. Very disappointed that this doesn’t seem to be the case as our current administration seems more concerned with future workers than those who have been in the membership for years. While they should be considered they should not be the priority over those who are presently employed and suffering through managements current actions.
Mr Burris please continue your advise and wisdom we need adult guidance unlike those little children that are running the show now. Can’t get what they want so they won’t agree to anything sounds like spoiled children leading the APWU. Hopfully they will change and grow up some.
Former APWU President Bill Burrus has been sharply critical of the current union leadership, most recently earlier this week when he noted that the APWU currently has “more elected officers than the top seven labor unions combined.”
Why would this shock anyone? The PO downsizes and APWU upsizes. APWU protects its elected officials with superseniority that allows junior stewards to bump senior war veterans returning from combat AND, if that wasn’t enough, they also will enjoy a retirement plan designated only for APWU officials paid for by union dues that you all gave em. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that? I know worthless employees who become stewards and get elected to office only so that they’ll be protected against excessing and will get a piece of that pie that your union dues paid for.
Mr. Burrus,
I very much appreciated the work you did on my behalf while you were an APWU Officer. My question is: Why did you bail on me on the Eve of the most important Contract this Union has ever had to negotiate?
AS EVER,
I REMAIN,
CONSTANT,
TEMPORARILY,
MORBIUS_CP
burrASS was a bum, so was biller, Vince Sombrotto NALC President was the real hero….led 1970 Wildcat Strike in NYC when he was President of the NALC NYC local…….apwu are bums compare their contracts to fire, police, sanatation, nurses, airline workers, teamster truck drivers…..all much better than the crummy 1% crap. best contract ever was when biller piggybacked on Sombrotto…..the weasel little bagel boy!
funny burrASS would go to that getto bunny powell, sold out workers at Mid-Island PD&C 117/119 so she could get her kids management jobs over at the Bethpage, NY plant……..nothing but an evil scumbag sellout…..they ran the bitch out of new york on a rail into the arms of fellow traveler burASS.
I hope the apwu goes down in flames….clerks to stupid to decertify them so let them rot on the vine.
“The Los Angeles convention will consider monumental issues that will decide the future of the union and I do not want to serve as a distraction”.
So let me get this straight…you don’t want to be a distraction…so a week before the convention you make a grandstand move to garner talk and make yourself a distraction? Ok gotcha!! No HEY LOOK AT ME moves on your part Mr. Ego, well played, After you and Jessie marched through the last convention with the all day tribute to Burrus the Great, you just can’t help yourself. I am sure you were paid very well for those 53 years of “service” so don’t act so sanctimonious.
I agree Burus and Biller were the best the APWU will ever be, but then we are going down, and strong leadership will probably not prevail because right now we have no leverage. All the PO has to say is, look, we have no money, no mail volumne, too many workers, and no help from our government. How can we dispute that, and then try to squeeze blood from a turnip? We are all on unstable ground, and a slippery slope. Who even knows if the PO will make it to 2015.? I din’t vote for the contract either, and that was a first no vote for me in my postal career, but now we see the crap that the mail handlers, the carriers, and the rural carriers are getting, and it makes ours not look so bad by comparison. I agree with Mr. Burus giving up his Emeritus award, I would to under the circumstances: he’s a man who stands up for what he believes in, and he cannot support the direction the APWU is going right now, I don’t either., the executive board voting against our incentive early out, without asking us, that’s a joke, how dare they speak for me, we want out.
One year to go. Almost 37 with 8+ Military Combined. I don’t need (but will take) an incentive. Why can’t we make that choice for ourselves? Guffey better agree to something and quick. These people are playing with lives of the people they are supposed to represent. Each day that goes by seems to get more and more depressing…knowing what could be and using simple Math and Logic. People want to go and people want to be hired! WTF IS SO COMPLICATED? Give the Employees the Choice! It’s not the same Post Office or Economy. Yes Congress is playing their Political Game and the PMG…….well…lets just say he makes allot of Money. Nobody Cares for US in the “Trenches”……..Just let us leave before the Post Office Bellies UP!
Yes thank you much for your wisdom in leading this union in the past Mr. Burrus. You had more foresight than this current Mr. Goofey!
First time in 30 years I voted no to a contract that took us backwards.
Bill, thanks for your service.
this contract is nothing but givebacks and the end of the union.
Last of the great unions, the middle class is gone.
hat’s off
Bill:
As Winston Churchill said in Englands time of distress, This is our
Finest Hour.
This Mr. Burris is your Finest Hour. Don’t Let Guffey and his know
nothings, do nothings, usless bunch of Lemmings rest for a minute.
Keep up the assault until they are forced to do the right thing for all
the loyal clerk craft members who have been sold out on all
fronts, Cola, 40 hour work week, & Retirement Incentive.
This union needs you at Guffeys Ball in Los Angeles, the membership
needs answers.
I can understand you giving back the Emeritus title. Who in their right mind would want to be associated with Guffey and his thugs at HQ? They have harmed this union to a point where it will never be the great union it was under Leadership like yours and Biller’s. Keep speaking your mind Bill – it is not only appreciated, it is every APWU member’s duty – and you ARE still a member.
In the meantime, they are partying at HQ like there uis nothing wrong. Watch how they will bestow retirement bonuses to each other as the ship keeps sinking – YES, the bonuses have been discussed for some time now. How does that make some of the loyalist sheep with their heads in the sand feel?
Mr Burrus, was correct about he contract I voted against it of the pay issue a 3.5 % pay raise based on aug 2010 is no payraise along with the cost of living increase get and delay if you figure it out there is no cost of living increase by the time you get is the economy has increase incosts for gas,food and daily living
mr burrus,
i think you are acting childish and stupid and have been for some time.
i hesitated to comment on this post because i think you are craving attention, and you really don’t care if it is positive or negative. hopefully, you will find some other outlet to satisfy your ego craving. if not, and you insist on being so involved in clerk
postal matters then please do this. go get yourself one of those newly created ‘pse’ jobs. i’m told the usps is hiring new pse’s like crazy all over the country. join the apwu, or maybe you still are a member, and run for office again. if you are
hell bent on working until death comes a knocking then i feel this route would best satify your bruised ego problem.
Kevin, you are right on target with your comment. Mr. Burrus came to the NALC National Convention in 2010 and gave a great speech and was well recieved by us carriers. His voice still needs to be heard.
This is exactly the kind of integrity postal management lacks. Thank you William for your service. The current clown puppets have no clue