• Convention Vote on Kerry-Edwards Ticket
• Final Delegate Count
• Retirees Eligible for PERF
• Critelli, Wientzen, Bowyer Address Convention
• Holton, Rodriguez, Bourque also Address Delegates

The vote was the first time NALC had expressed a preference in this year's presidential race. NALC had abstained when the AFL-CIO endorsed Kerry earlier this year.

NALC President William H. Young explained that he had refrained from an earlier endorsement, including participating in the AFL-CIO vote, because he wanted the union's endorsement to come from "the bottom up, not the top down."

"I don't want to get out in front of the membership," Young said. "This is a democratic union."

"The feeling of our members is that Kerry is more closely aligned with workers' rights and workers' issues than the current administration. They clearly favor the Kerry-Edwards ticket," Young said. "It is now our job to get out there and work as hard as we can to see that they get elected."

During brief floor discussion on the motion, California State NALC President John Beaumont urged support of the Democratic ticket.

"I think it is time to work together to take this country back," Beaumont said. "Its (the Bush administration) not been there for working families. Its not been there for us."

Mike Lee of Hurst, TX Branch 5938 also urged support. "Send George Bush back home to Texas and let us deal with him there," he said.

Kerry, who is set to be formally nominated as the Democratic nominee at that party's convention next week in Boston, is a good friend of letter carriers, backing the union on many postal issues and a strong supporter of working men and women. Edwards, who addressed the NALC Convention in Philadelphia two years ago, is the son of a rural letter carrier and has also been a strong backer of carrier goals in Congress.

In the final report of the Credentials Committee July 21, Committee Chair Carol Maggio of San Francisco, CA Br. 214, reported that credentials had been issued to 7,429 members.

President Young announced to delegates that Grantors of the Postal Employees' Relief Fund on July 19 approved his proposal to include postal retirees among those eligible to request grants from the Fund. Prior to this action, the Fund had been restricted to active postal employees on the payroll at the time of a disaster.

The change was effective immediately for individuals who retired from the Postal Service pursuant to Form 50 (Notice of Personnel Action) and coverage is retroactive to damage incurred from natural disasters or house fires that occurred on or after December 18, 2003.

At Tuesday's session, delegates heard from two of the NALC's staunchest supporters in the battleground for postal reform legislation, and one of the leading international postal union officials.

Michael J. Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes, said it was necessary for postal reform to be adopted in order to help the Postal Service be more competitive. Critelli said letter carriers were "the single biggest competitive advantage the Postal Service has" because of their work ethic that makes USPS a cost-effective, last-mile delivery system.

He added that with regulatory changes and innovative business thinking, Postal Service products could thwart competitors. "The more things you can pickup and deliver ... the less likely (customers) will go to other services," he said.

Robert Wientzen, president and CEO of Direct Marketing Association, said mailers and the NALC can work together to meet the challenges facing the Postal Service.

"The real answer here is to raise mail volume, not just cut costs," he said, winning applause from the delegates. Wientzen noted the NALC and DMA have been working to find creative ways to grow mail volume and preserve the USPS and letter carrier jobs.

Philip Bowyer, deputy general secretary of Union Network International (UNI) an international federation with 15 million members (including NALC) in 140 countries, said that what the United States does over the next year on postal reform "can set the example for post offices throughout the world."

National Rural Letter Carriers President Dale Holton extended the greetings of 119,000 rural carriers on July 20 noting that his appearance occasioned "a willingness to work more closely between our two organizations in order to resolve issues of common concern that affect all of us as postal employees and delivery crafts."

He said this involved making transfers between the crafts occur more smoothly, working together on the Postal Employees' Relief Fund and the Mail Security Task Force dealing with terrorist acts, and working closely on postal reform legislation.

Holton stated that President Young called for a cooperative effort on the legislation when he spoke to the Rural Carriers convention a year ago, and said "since that time we have worked very closely together. I think (there was) unprecedented cooperation between the presidents of all the unions ... to talk about the things, the issues involved in that legislation and to make sure that our common message was heard."

Jurisdictional Disputes

Holton also cited the city-rural jurisdictional disputes between the two organizations for many years. "It has been an issue that has caused a lot of enmity between our two crafts," he said, adding that the two organizations and the Postal Service established a process to deal with those issues and resolve all outstanding differences between the two union.

"The fact that the reps from our two unions could sit down with each other and the Postal Service, discuss the issues, and reach agreement on this major issue is a giant leap in the right direction," Holton said.

The Rural Carriers president also praised the increased cooperation between the two unions on participation in the NALC National Food Drive, saying he urged his members to join in the effort which this year collected a record amount of donations.

"I hope in some place that some rural carriers helped you do that and I hope that that is a signal for the rest of the time that I am president of the National Rural Letter Carriers that we can continue to cooperate and work together on those issues that are of common, mutual concern," he said.

United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez followed Holton and stressed to the delegates the continuing struggle of farm workers in achieving a good wage and decent working conditions.

Difficult Work

"I know many of you work in the sun and have to walk in delivering the mail and it's tough," Rodriguez said. "But thin about the women and the men that all day long are stooped over whether they're picking strawberries, or cutting lettuce, or cutting broccoli in 100 degrees plus weather, or they're picking the grapes, or they're climbing the ladders to pick the citrus, the oranges and the lemons and the avocados. Or they're working picking the mushrooms in the hothouses and the places like that. That is extremely difficult work."

Afterward, a motion was made to "pass the hat" to help the UFW in its struggles. President Young led off with a $5,000 donation from the NALC, and then an additional $11,280.25 was collected from delegates on the floor.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers President Deborah Bourque said the two unions have had a longtime close working relationship. "What happens in the United States, especially around postal services, has a deep impact in Canada," she said.

"Although we recognize that your struggle is far from over, I must say that CUPW breathed a collective sign of relief when we sw the draft legislation on postal reform that is now before the Senate and the House," she said.

"When Bush got elected, we feared that we would see mass privatization and deregulation of postal services in the United States," Bourque said. "And thanks to the hard work of everyone in this room and especially your national president, Brother Young, this hasn't been the case and you all should be congratulated for this struggle."