NALC President William H. Young challenged several recommendations of the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service during field hearings of the House Government Reform Special Panel on Postal Reform in Chicago February 5 , especially those that would significantly alter the process for resolving labor-management disputes. He said such a move would be both "unnecessary and counterproductive."

Young urged the panel to adopt reforms to allow USPS to be more competitive in the commercial market, but urged it to "tread lightly" in revamping the 30-year-old postal collective bargaining process so as not to risk harming progress made in labor-management relations.

"Avoid politicizing the collective bargaining process," Young said. "Congressional or White House intervention in the process would be highly destructive."

Accompanied at the hearing by Executive Vice President Jim Williams and Chicago Branch 11 President Jim Canada, Young told Panel Chairman John McHugh (R-NY) that the process would be politicized if a politically appointed regulatory body – such as recommended by the Presidential Commission – were injected into the negotiations process, or if the process was exposed to outside litigation instead of the current binding arbitration procedure.

Young said that would be "disastrous to the process."

"Depending on the prevailing political winds of the day and the makeup of the regulatory board at any particular moment, either side might be tempted to try to obtain from regulators what they could not expect to achieve through good faith bargaining," Young said.

Young said he opposes the Commission's suggestion that tripartite arbitration be eliminated, that a strict timetable be imposed for mediation and arbitration, that use of the "last best and final offer" procedure be required, and that regulatory review of collective bargaining agreements be conducted.

"We believe these changes are unnecessary and counterproductive," he said, noting that they would discard 30 years of experience and stating that workable changes must be negotiated by the parties themselves.

Young also rejected a suggestion that pension and health benefits be directly negotiated between labor and management instead of being included in federal programs.

Young said such issues figure very prominently in postal labor negotiations, adding that "the added cost of benefits when postal wages are increased is never far from the negotiators' minds."

Despite his opposition to several aspects of the Commission's report, Young said the union favors reforms that would strengthen the ability of the Postal Service to function in the face of technological change and urged Congress to reject a pure down-sizing strategy and to embrace an empowerment strategy for the Postal Service.

"The USPS should be given the commercial freedom it needs to maximize the value of its universal service network by adding services and working with its customers to find new uses of the mail to replace those uses that are now migrating to electronic alternatives," he said.

Young spent most of his testimony discussing the focus of the hearing – postal workforce issues and reminded the panel that since the Postal Reorganization Act was enacted in the aftermath of the national postal strike of 1970, there has not been a single work stoppage or significant disruption in service as a result of labor relations.

"This 34-year record of peaceful labor relations should not be minimized," Young said.

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The NALC has donated $5,000 to a special fund of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union to help some 70,000 workers either on strike or locked out since October 11, 2003 at Safeway-owned Von's, Albertsons and Kroger-owned Ralphs stores in southern California.

The contract dispute centers around management demands for a dramatic permanent cut in healthcare benefits and two-tiered pay scale even though they have reaped huge profits in recent years.

The AFL-CIO has asked union workers nationwide to change their normal routine and not shop at Safeway stores during the strike.

"The company that owns Safeway is stubbornly refusing to negotiate a reasonable contract," the AFL-CIO said in a memo to affiliated unions. "We all need to vote with our shopping choices and tell these giant grocery corporations that their actions are unacceptable and we will not support them with our business."

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