LaborPains.org

Photo credit: Bill McBain

Don’t expect the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to turn a profit any time soon. Thanks to a multi-billion dollar contract that the financially challenged (to put it mildly) agency negotiated with its biggest labor union, the USPS is poised to keep on delivering losses as routinely as it delivers mail.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) thinks the agency’s contract with the American Postal Workers Union, originally intended to save USPS $3.8 billion over 4 ½ years,  will do exactly the opposite. From Bloomberg:

“This contract falls short,” Issa said at a hearing about the Postal Service’s labor costs. “We have deep concerns that some of the provisions of the contract may in fact be the wrong direction, to less flexibility, less ability to trim the workforce and less ability to in the future make the kinds of investments we need to make.”

In other words, the agency won’t be in the black for the foreseeable future.

Adding to USPS’ financial woes, Bloomberg reports that the agency indicates it will “run out of cash unless Congress permits it to delay a $5.5 billion payment, due Sept. 30, for health benefits for future retirees.” And here’s the kicker: “The labor costs include payments for those benefits.”

Despite this grim financial forecast for USPS, Postmaster General Patrick Donohue told the oversight committee that his budget-busting negotiations with the postal workers union represent, in his mind at least, “a responsible agreement.”

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Small business owners in southeast Wisconsin have been given an ultimatum by a local public sector labor union: Proudly display our pro-union sign in your storefront windows or we’ll boycott.

“Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business,” states a letter to businesses from the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24. “And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

Reluctant business owners say they prefer to remain neutral in a battle that should be settled in the Capitol and not on Main Street. Rev. Jesse Jackson defended the union’s boycott effort to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stating that it’s merely a “nonviolent tactic used to get attention to the steamroller tactics” of Wisconsin Republicans and Gov. Walker.

Call these anti-small business threats “non-violent” all you want. That doesn’t mean they won’t do a lot of damage to innocent bystanders if and when the union follows through.

It’s day two of the new Republican House of Representatives and unions are already pulling their hair out:

The GOP’s decision to drop “labor” from the name of a House committee is being interpreted by some union officials as the curtain-raiser to their efforts to pressure the Obama administration on workplace laws and regulations.

Several labor leaders contacted by The Hill said changing the name of the House Education and Labor Committee to the House Education and the Workforce Committee shows that a new boss is in town, and one not friendly to unions.

There’s a pretty big chasm between changing a committee name and spitting on workers’ rights, but that’s union rhetoric for you. This move is purely symbolic, but organized labor (er, workforce) is right to fret. The congressional GOP has spoken favorably about requiring workers to opt in for political spending, overhauling public-sector pensions, exercising oversight over the Department of Labor, and investigating union leaders. These are all much needed reforms and, at least for the time being, Republicans look serious about enacting them.

Image courtesy of kevindooley.