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In a meeting with the White House today, NALC President Fred Rolando delivered policy recommendations to the White House Task Force on the Postal Service. The Task Force, comprised of the heads of OPM, OMB and the Department of the Treasury, was established in April via executive order from President Trump. It has been charged with evaluating the finances of USPS -- including its pricing, operations and workforce costs. (Find the Executive Order here).
In a report due no later than August 10, 2018, the Task Force is required to provide a “thorough evaluation of the operations and finance of the USPS,” along with possible legislative and administrative actions to reform the agency. In the executive order, the White House committed to considering the views of the USPS workforce and industry and NALC was invited to meet with the task force.
NALC coordinated with the other three postal unions (APWU, NRLCA and NPMHU) to prepare a comprehensive analysis of the Postal Service’s current situation and to offer concrete recommendations that can be taken to stabilize the USPS, a treasured and Constitutionally mandated agency.
The materials provided and the workforce recommendations can be found through the links below:
- Workforce Submission to the White House Task Force on the USPS (white paper)
- An Executive Summary of the Workforce Submission
- Policy Options for Eliminating or Reducing the Prefunding Burden (summary chart)
- History of Postal Reform Legislation
The NALC, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), National Postal Mail Handlers (NPMHU), and National Rural Letter Carriers (NRLCA), collectively represent more than 500,000 Postal Service employees who are a critical part of the $1.4 trillion mailing industry, which employs 7.5 million Americans in total.
At the meeting NALC made it clear that the Postal Service, an agency with an 88 percent favorability rating with the American people, does not need a new business model or a fundamental restructuring. Instead, Rolando called on the Task Force to focus on the real source of the Postal Service’s financial crisis: The mandate to prefund retiree health benefits decades in advance, which accounts for 92% of the agency’s reported losses since 2007.
During the meeting, the representatives of Treasury, OPM and OMB engaged Rolando and his team about the materials provided by the four unions, asking questions and making comments on the proposals offered by the white paper.
“NALC’s goal is to protect the interests of all its members, active and retired alike,” Rolando said. “We appreciate the opportunity to engage with the White House to find real solutions to the financial crisis caused by the 2006 mandate to prefund retiree health benefits,” he added. “Our shared goals should be to restore the USPS to financial stability while protecting its employees and strengthening the universal mail delivery network that is so critical to Americans and their businesses, large and small. NALC looks forward to working with the Postal Task Force in the weeks and months ahead,” he concluded.