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Channel: Congress – The North Carolina Letter Carrier Activist
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Needed Now: All Letter Carriers to Be Political Activists

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by Craig Schadewald, President North Carolina State Association of Letter Carriers

In August I attended the National Rap Session in Denver, Colorado. The three main topics were contract negotiations, legislative and political priorities, and contractual issues. NALC, National President Rolando, when speaking on legislation and politics, made it perfectly clear to those in attendance, and the message that needed to be taken back to the membership was; “the most dangerous challenge we face as letter carriers is the attacks on our jobs, our benefits, the company we work for, our ability to collectively bargain and, basically, the [threatened] destruction of the Postal Service.”

Most of these attacks: the pre-funding mandate, reducing our benefits, eliminating collective bargaining and weakening or privatizing the Postal Service, will ultimately be decided by Congress through the legislative process. This is the reason we need every letter carrier (working or retired) actively participating in the legislative and political process.

Our State Letter Carrier Congressional Liaisons (LCCL’s) and myself have been busy meeting with staff members at our NC Congressional District offices. During the meeting we educate the staff on our NALC issues and supported House Resolutions and ask the House Member to add their name as a cosponsor. As of this writing, NALC’s current top priority legislation is H.R. 2382 USPS Fairness Act. This would repeal the mandated pre-funding.

Following the meeting, the staff member forwards the information to the appropriate staff member in the D.C. office. We then do a follow up call or meeting. One constant we are hearing from the staff is, that neither office (District or D.C.) are hearing from constituents in support of the resolutions. This is very disturbing considering the amount of information NALC and our State Association is providing our members. Thank you, if you are one that calls your member of Congress.

Contacting your members of Congress is easy. Use the NALC Legislative Action Center from the NALC Member App via the Government Affairs tab or on NALC.org. You can also call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, then enter your home zip code and you will be connected to your representative’s office. The attitude of indifference or unresponsiveness to act needs to change. If you like the pay and benefits you receive or will receive, then you need to join the rest of us in contacting your member of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor whatever piece of legislation we are supporting at that time.

As of this writing, NALC’s current top priority legislation is H.R. 2382 USPS Fairness Act.

Lack of concern is not just a NALC thing. Another lack of concern is voting. We had NC special elections for two US House Congressional Districts and voter turnout was horrible in one and a little less horrible in the other. According to the NC State Board of Election, as of January 1, 2019, Congressional District 3 (CD3) had 516,725 registered voters and Congressional District 9 (CD9) had 539,918 registered voters. The total voting for the September 10th special election were CD3-113,607 and CD9-189,363. Over 403k didn’t vote in CD3 and over 350k in CD9. For some perspective, the November 2018 election vote totals were CD3-186,353 (with no opponent running against the incumbent) and CD9-282,717. I realize both the 2019 special election and the 2018 mid-term elections were not during a presidential election, where voter turnout is the highest, but come on people!

Brothers and Sisters, as Letter Carriers for the Postal Service and Federal Employees we have much riding on Congress, the White House, and the NC General Assembly in the 2020 election. As you may know our congressional districts can be redrawn based on the census results taken every ten years. These congressional districts are drawn by the majority in the NC General Assembly. This is why it is important to us who gets elected to our state legislature even though it’s the US Congress who decides our fate.

President Rolando, at the Rap session stated something all Branch and State leaders are all too familiar with when he said, “the most difficult challenge we face is finding opportunities to educate our members as to what is the danger and what we can do about it.”

So, I’m calling on all branch leaders, state officers and concerned members to find ways to communicate to those members who don’t normally attend meetings on the dangers we face, what they mean to them and what they can do about it. Be sure to include the necessity of contributing to the Letter Carrier Political Fund (LCPF).


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