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11/07/2017 - Last week, the House Republicans released their tax bill titled, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. “Don’t be fooled by the name,” said Legislative and Political Director Judy Beard. “The foundation of the legislation is a massive corporate tax break and includes many provisions that will hurt working families. It is not designed to create jobs with a living wage and good benefits, but to enrich the corporate elite and the billionaire class.”

Wall Street and the corporate elite will be gifted with a tax rate reduction from 35% to 20% – this alone will give the six largest banks more than $6 billion dollars of increased profit annually. The tax bill would eliminate the estate tax – equaling $269 billion dollars in lost revenue over the next decade – solely for benefit of the wealthiest 0.2% of households.

If passed, this corporate tax break will drain needed resources for education, medical research and environmental protection. It will also lead to cuts in vital social programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Remember, the finalized 2018 Fiscal Year budget has $5 trillion in budget cuts, including $1.5 trillion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, which will be used to pay for a tax break to benefit large corporations and the richest 1% of Americans.

10/27/2017 - On Thursday, Oct. 26, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Senate’s budget resolution. With both chambers in agreement, there is now a budget which lays out limits for 2018 federal government spending.

Tens of thousands of postal and federal workers called on their lawmakers over the last few months to reject any resolution paid for by hurting the livelihoods of dedicated civil servants. You called to oppose: moving the Postal Service “on budget,” increasing employee pension contributions, ending the Social Security supplement and eliminating pensions for new hires.

None of these disastrous provisions were included in the final budget and we credit your activism and the collaboration with the Federal-Postal Coalition with their exclusion.

Still a Bad Deal for Working People

“While the APWU successfully defeated attacks on postal worker pay and retirement benefits make no mistake, this is not a good budget,” said President Dimondstein. “It calls for slashing trillions from domestic spending, and it would use those funds to finance a huge tax cut primarily for the richest in this country. In total, the budget calls for $1.5 trillion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.”

10/19/2017 - Each year, Veterans' Day is celebrated on Nov. 11. For 2017, the holiday falls on a Saturday. 

There has been some confusion about when the Postal Service will observe the holiday because it has a six “business” day week. For clarification, USPS Retail and Delivery will be closed on Saturday, November 11, 2017. It will be business as usual on Friday, November 10, 2017.

In a letter to the APWU the Postal Service writes:

“In an effort to ensure clarity regarding the upcoming holiday, please note that in observance of the holiday the Postal Service will not conduct normal mail delivery or retail operations on Veterans’ Day (Saturday, November 11). Package delivery will be performed on November 11-12.”

Regular Employees with Saturday as their normal workday will observe the holiday on Saturday. Employees with Saturday as their scheduled off day, will observe Friday as their holiday. Those employees with Friday and Saturday as their scheduled off days, will observe Thursday as their holiday. Lastly, in accordance with Article 11.8.B of the CBA, Postal Support Employees will receive holiday pay for Saturday, November 11, 2017.

10/11/2017 - On Thursday, Oct. 5, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to advance its 2018 budget resolution. This resolution is a broad measure that designates government spending with far-reaching implications, including enormous cuts to postal and federal workers, as well as America’s social safety net, while providing tax cuts for the wealthy. While the resolution passed the House on a narrow 219 to 206 vote, a federal budget can only take effect if agreed to by both chambers.

Tens of thousands of postal and federal workers called on their lawmakers throughout the summer and fall to reject any budget balanced on the backs of workers. After APWU and our allies in the Federal-Postal Coalition planted a flag opposing the House’s draconian cuts, 18 Republicans lawmakers joined all Democrats voting in opposition. You can see how each representative voted, including a list of the 18 opposing Republicans, at GovTrack.