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Veterans Play Important Rule: Postal Workers Organize To Fight For A Decent Wage!

By VVAW

A big struggle is brewing inside Post Offices all across the country as contract time approaches. The present contract between Postal workers and the United States Postal Service expires on July 20th and the fight for a good contract in 1975 is growing. It's going to be one hell of a fight because the Postal workers aren't going to let the economic crisis of the Postal Corporation end up on the workers' backs. The Postal Corporation is facing an $820 million deficit, which means they will be fighting against the workers with everything they've got. Also, the Postmaster General is using this deficit as an excuse for plans to lay off at least 50,000 workers over a period of five years, and some estimates for layoffs reach as high as 200,000 workers?or 1/3 of the total work force. Going along with the planned layoffs are efforts to redouble productivity campaigns, even though they are already the most intense in Post Office history.

But the rank and file Postal workers are fighting back against a rip-off contract; they have to do this because the upcoming contract could mean a decent standard of living or starvation wages, speed-up, unemployment and a continuation of the lousy benefits Postal workers now have. Veterans will play an important role in upcoming struggle because there are many thousands of vets employed by the Post Office. The bosses will be trying to divide these vets from other Postal workers with their claims that when the layoffs come, vets will be the last to be affected. Vets must reject these divide and rule schemes!

Though the leadership of the unions representing Postal workers is trying to put out a firm line of "No Contract, No Work," they are evading the real issue. A contract can be won with little or no trouble, but the key thing is that it be a good contract, containing the demands being raised by rank and file Postal workers and insuring decent working and living conditions.

Veterans and non-vets working in the Post Office must unite if they are to win a good contract. At the same time, the support of workers in all industries, as well as support from unemployed workers, will be crucial in the upcoming contract battle. It is "illegal" for Postal workers to strike, but if they can't get a decent contract any other way, there will be no other option but striking. If the strike happens, you can bet that the government and bosses will be doing everything possible to see that the strike is broken, eve going to the extreme reached during the 1970 Postal strike where the National Guard was called out. All working people must unite behind the Postal workers demands and the fight for a good contract to insure that strike-breaking efforts aren't successful!

VVAW/WSO received the following letter from the National Postal Workers for a Good Contract Committee which lays out the demands of the Postal workers and why the contract struggle is so important.

Dear VVAW/WSO,

On July 20, our contract with the United States Postal Service expires. The four Postal Unions and the USPS are in the process of negotiating a new one.

This struggle between postal workers and our bosses is shaping up to be one of the key contract struggles for the whole working class this year. The outcome of this battle will affect not only 600,000 Postal workers, but will also affect the upcoming contract struggles in other industries. Recently, President Ford said that the Postal contract will be a "pacesetter" for other contracts this year. What he means is either the bosses will be able to further drive us, the working class, down or we will move on the offensive and begin to drive them back.

Right now, the whole system is in a crisis. The owning class is trying to make us, the working class, "tighten our belts" and bear the burden of their crisis. In the Post Office, which isn't much different than other industries, the bosses need to cut down on the number of workers and speed up those left in order to make greater profit. The key issues facing us in our contract struggle reflect this.

Over the past several years, the number of Postal workers has dropped from 700,000 to 600,000 and in this contract struggle, we are preparing to fight to DEFEND EVERY JOB. This means keeping the present No Layoff Clause, allowing No Reduction in the Work Force, and Improving the Grievance Procedure. Directly connected with this is the demand that there be No Productivity Clause written into the contract. The Postal bosses have already announced their intention to hold down any wage increase to around 5%. This will not meet our needs for the next two years and we are determined not to pay for the P.O.'s economic problems. We are demanding MORE MONEY which includes a Big Pay Increase and Cost of Living Raises. We are also demanding BETTER BENEFITS which include a Full Paid Medical and Dental Plan, Less Years Till Retirement and a Shorter Work Week.

How do we plan on fighting for these? Well, recently the Outlaw, a rank and file Postal workers organization in the New York/New Jersey area and Uprising, another rank and file Postal workers organization in Oakland, California have initiated the National Postal Workers for a Good Contract Committee. We know that the power to win a good contract doesn't just lie in the hands of a few union negotiators shuffling proposals back and forth between themselves and the bosses. Management is ready to talk when we're ready to walk. The real power lies in the ability of the rank and file to shut down the Post Office nationwide. If we're united and organized, the bosses know we can fight and they fear this.

During recent negotiations, management came out with a proposed Lay-off Clause that would make veterans a special group who would be the last ones to get laid-off. There is a large percentage of vets working in the P.O. and the bosses are trying to use them to divide our ranks. No one is being fooled by this because back in 1973 the P.O. hired several thousand vets under a special V.R.A. (Veterans Readjustment Act) program whereby the vets got totally shafted with less pay, no grievance procedures, and no seniority rights. The rank and file, both vets and non-vets, took up this fight and won back pay for those vets. We won't fall for management's present divide and conquer tactics which try to get us fighting amongst ourselves for a few crumbs. We know that if we stand united and fight to DEFEND EVERY JOB, no one will get laid off.

In the event that we do go on strike in July, then management will use every means at their disposal from the top sellout union leaders, to the courts, to the police and scabs in order to try and smash us. Like the 1970 Postal strike shows, when all these means fail, the bosses will use the military. Because most GIs are also from the working class we are faced with similar attacks from our common enemy, the ruling class. WE still strive to develop class unity with them and win their support so that they'll refuse to be used by the bosses as scabs and strike breakers.

We are calling on VVAW/WSO, the main organization leading the struggles of veterans against the imperialist system, to help us in our upcoming contract struggle. We are requesting that you publicize our struggle in your newspaper and where possible, have your chapters in different cities work through our national committee to help in leafleting and establishing good contract committees in Post Offices where we have no contracts. We are also requesting that you utilize your extensive ties with GIs in the military to publicize and build support for our up-coming battle with the bosses.

For more information, contact: National PO Workers for a Good Contract Committee, 129 W. 22nd St., 9th Floor, New York, New York 10011; phone number (212) 243-7819. Or, contact the above named committee at P.O. Box 5476, Oakland, California 94605.

FIGHT FOR A GOOD CONTRACT IN '75