News & information

News items from various industry corners that could have an impact on letter carriers:

Closer to full: President Obama has nominated David S. Shapira, executive chairman of the grocery store chain, Giant Eagle, to the USPS Board of Governors. Shapira’s nomination first will have to be approved by the Senate committee with Postal Service oversight, and later by the full Senate. Ongoing vacancies on the Board threaten its ability to do its job. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Continuing recovery (asterisk): The number of new claims for unemployment benefits fell again last week, another sign of an improving labor market. Many of these jobs, however, are going to part-time workers who don’t enjoy the contractually guaranteed access to a full-time career path that city carrier assistants have. (The Wall Street Journal)

Go West, young organizer: The Teamsters and other unions are trying the organize the blue-collar workers who cook, drive and clean for the employees of large Silicon Valley tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Apple. Organizing drives like these could help reverse the downward membership trend that unions have been experiencing over the last 30 years. (New York Magazine)