Legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) will allow our nation's postmasters to take an active and constructive role in managing their post offices and discussing compensation issues. The Postmasters Fairness and Rights Act (S. 2703) would invest our Nation's postmasters with greater input in operational decision-making, improve morale, and help attract and retain qualified Postmasters. The measure would also define "postmaster" for the first time. Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), John Edwards (D-NC), and Max Baucus (D-MT) are cosponsors of the legislation.
The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 established a "consultative" process for postmasters and non-union postal employees to negotiate pay and benefits. Under the current system, postmasters have seen an erosion of their role in improving the quality of mail services to postal patrons and managing their local post offices. Salary and benefit equity has also lagged. These circumstances have contributed to the decline in the number of postmasters since the reorganization of the Postal Service thirty years ago. Postmasters lack recourse when consultation fails to produce satisfactory results. The Postmaster Fairness and Rights Act would establish binding arbitration procedures when agreements are not reached through the consultative process.
"Our nation's postmasters are on the front line to ensure that the mail gets delivered in a timely manner, and they have helped fuel the infrastructure that boosted the performance ratings of the Postal Service to an all-time high in 1999," Akaka noted. "Our bill would create a positive and fair procedure to address the inequalities that have resulted from the consultative process, including the growing inequity in addressing pay and compensation issues under the present system."
"The Postal Service estimates that seven million customers a day transact business at post offices. We expect timely delivery of the mail, six days a week, and the Postal Service does not disappoint us. Given the regularity of mail delivery and the number of Americans visiting post offices daily, it is no wonder that we have come to view our neighborhood post offices as cornerstones of our communities. In fact, many of our towns and cities have developed around a post office where the postmaster served as the town's only link to the federal government."
The bill was referred to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where Senator Akaka serves as the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on International Relations, Proliferation, and Federal Services, with jurisdiction over civil service and postal issues. A House companion bill, H.R. 3842, introduced by Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD) has the bipartisan support of 125 cosponsors.
