• 64th Biennial Convention Opens
  • Sam Hipa Tribute
• Reps. Abercrombie and Davis Address Convention
• COLA

In his first convention serving as presiding officer, Young outlined the progress that has been accomplished during his first year and a half as president toward goals set out in his inaugural address – a Dispute Resolution System and new Joint Intervention Process, enlistment of NALC members into a cadre of e-Activists to fight for legislative goals, and expanding and improving training materials and programs.

Young said his motives for pushing workplace issues, which also include developing a Joint Route Adjustment Process, were twofold.

"First, I believed that letter carriers deserve to work in a decent environment, one free of abuse and strife," Young said. "But I also knew that carriers trapped in postal hell could not be expected to support legislative initiatives designed to prop up a sick and dysfunctional institution. So somehow we had to improve the workplace environment."

But Young said that is only half the story. "The other half is that we have a lot of work ahead of us. We cannot and will not rest on our laurels," he said.

He pointed to postal reform.

"The legislation we have been championing marks only the beginning of the reforms we will undoubtedly be seeking," he said. "Continued technological change plus the never ending appetites of our competitors will require further changes, legislative and otherwise, down the road."

Young added that postal management will continue to try to cut costs so NALC has to be prepared to "stop them in their tracks when this is appropriate."

"Human nature suggests that harmony does not exist forever. This means that even workplaces that are good today can go bad tomorrow," he said, noting that the Dispute Resolution and Joint Intervention programs will probably always be with us, perhaps augmented by new initiatives in response to new and unforeseen developments.

Young said he was confident the union will "meet the challenges head-on – standing together and standing

When Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) began speaking at the July 19 opening session, delegates didn't have to wait a second before they got his message: "Aloha! What I want to know is "Are we going to win this November for working people in this country, or not?"

The answer was resounding applause that filled the Hawaii Convention Center.

Abercrombie, who has given spell-binding speeches to several previous conventions and NALC events, said for the next 100 days he is going to be traveling the country "taking the word out that the working middle class of this country is going to take America back for working people and put us back in charge."

Abercrombie said what is needed is loyalty in the voting booth for people on your side.

"What I'm asking you and every working person in this country: be loyal to those that are on your side and vote for the people that are going to stick with you," he said. "All for one and one for all. An injury to one is an injury to all. That's the kind of loyalty we're looking for."

"If the Bush administration comes back, the first thing they are going to do is to try to undermine collective bargaining across this country and they are going to try to outsource every job and let me tell you they will come at the Postal Service first and foremost," Abercrombie warned. "They are coming for you."

Abercrombie urged the delegates to "translate whatever energy we can muster together in this union to see to it that people who are loyal to you are put back in office."

Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) a former postal clerk in Chicago and currently the ranking Democrat ion a special congressional panel on the Postal Service, said NALC advocacy and leadership made sure that post reform legislation contained collective bargaining, universal service and six-day mail delivery.

"The bill goes a long way toward achieving accountability, reliability, flexibility and the viability of the Postal Service," Davis said. "We're still working through some of the tough nitty-gritty issues, but we do believe that we are very close to a bill that the President of the United States can and will in fact sign once it is put on his desk."

Davis said he goes back to Washington knowing that are those who want to weaken what letter carriers do, trying to come up with other schemes, "to privatize, to downsize, to outsource."
Like Abercrombie, Davis said he also will use to next 100 days to work in the election, saying he plans to go on a new version of the "no carb" diet – "no Bush, no Cheney, no Ashcroft."

The projected accumulation for the fourth of eight regular cost-of-living adjustments under the 2001-2006 National Agreement increased to $696.80 following release July 16 of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for June.

The $696.80 annual accumulation equals 33 1/2 cents per hour or $26.80 per pay period.

The fourth COLA will be based on inflation between January and July 2004 and will be payable in the second full pay period following release of the July 2004 index.

The projected accumulation toward the 2005 retiree COLA stood at 2.8 percent following release of the June CPI-W. The 2005 retiree COLA will be based on the increase in the CPI-W between the third quarter of 2003 and the third quarter of 2004.

The 2005 COLA for Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) participants stands at 3 percent based on the latest figures. The 2005 FECA COLA is based on the increase in the CPI-W between December 2003 and December 2004.