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Submitted by dr on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 7:28pm.
Informational picket calls for return of union president and return of mail operations to Olympia. Olympia, WA November 17, 2008. The Olympia local of the American Postal Workers Union held an informational picket on Monday, November 17, 2008 from 7 AM to 9 AM, 12 to 1 PM, and 4 to 5 PM at the Olympia downtown post office located at 900 Jefferson Street in Olympia, Washington. The informational picket was to call for the Postal Service to bring fired union president Clint Burelson back to work and to bring the outgoing mail operations back to Olympia. The Postal Service recently fired local union president Clint Burelson for his union activities and major role as a whistleblower in exposing the fact that mail consolidations would reduce service and would not save money. Since then, mail consolidations all across the country have been stopped once communities have learned the truth about mail consolidation. Burelson is a strong advocate for workers in the post office and management is firing him for performing his duties as a union representative. Despite many grievance settlements signed by the Postal Service in which they agreed to cease and desist in discriminating against Burelson for his union activities, management continues to discriminate against him. The Postal Service recently admitted in their review of the consolidation that they have lost $1.5 million in six months as a result of the transfer of outgoing mail operations from Olympia to Tacoma. The Postal Service had previously claimed that the transfer of the mail to Tacoma would save the Postal Service $1.2 million. The Postal Service therefore made at least a $2.7 million mistake in judgment. The Postal Service has not released all the necessary details of the review of the Olympia consolidation so that the union and other interested parties can properly audit the information. However, from the post office’s own data, it is clear that the consolidation was not cost-effective and the loss of the Olympia postmark and reduction in mail service was unwarranted. The Post Office previously stated they would bring the mail back to Olympia if the move was not cost-effective. Concerned citizens and organizations should contact their government representatives to advocate for the return of Olympia’s outgoing mail to Olympia and for the return of Union President Clinton Burelson to his job with the Postal Service. For more information contact: Louie Mackey at (360) 357-6231. The Postal Service is a federal agency and therefore accountable to the public. Citizens may contact their federal representatives regarding their concerns.
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A working class hero is something to be.
Submitted by Sandy M on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 9:14pm.And Clint Burelson certainly fits that bill. Decent union jobs are getting harder and harder to find and Clint has been a stalwart defender of those jobs at the Postal Service for at least a couple decades now.
Clint pretty much single-handedly broke the story and blew the whistle on plans to downsize and consolidate Postal Services nationwide. In a series of articles he wrote for Works In Progress, Clint explained that the consolidation of Postal Services was not only a downsizing of good union jobs, but also a maneuver to increasingly outsource and privatize work previously done by Postal Workers.
Clint Burelson deserves our support. He successfully challenged the powers that be by exposing a money-wasting scheme that reduced services to the public. But this goes well beyond supporting one brave and diligent man. It's about supporting living wages and the right to organize. And it's about resisting the trend toward privatizing and profitizing a cherished public service.
I join with dr and strongly encourage everyone to call their elected representatives to insist that Clint be returned to his job and that Olympia's outgoing mail once again be processed right here in Olympia.