Day 4

We started off the day with a video message from Congressman John McHugh (R-NY). He is another example of someone from the opposing party who we support because he has demonstrated that he supports the issues important to us. His relevance to the issues that concerns us the most is that he is a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the chairman of the Committee’s Special Panel on Postal Reform and Oversight. At the close of the 109th Congress, Rep. McHugh's bill to significantly reform the Postal Service for the first time in 35 years, was signed into law by President Bush. He and Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) are working for us to make sure that the Postal Service remains efficient and does not make any changes that could potentially affect our jobs.

Next up was Neil Anderson of Union Network International (UNI). This organization represents over 1000 unions operating in 150 countries with over 1 million people involved. Their aim is to be a global representative for postal unions all over the world! UNI helps by educating workers and assisting the unorganized to know that they have the right to join and create unions everywhere. At the 2004 Convention, Phillip Boyer, the then Deputy General Secretary of (UNI), addressed the Delegation. At that time he informed us that in some countries delivering mail had already been contracted out and in others it had been proposed to charge for the delivery according to the distance from the Post Office! What Brother Anderson did was give us an update on the postal operations in these countries as a result of the out-sourcing. He went on to state that in each of the instances that the Postal Services out-sourced or privatized, none were providing that same type of service that the people had been accustomed to, and in some cases, service was no longer universal or provided to everyone. President Hegarty added that the NPMHU was using facts and figures provided by UNI on those occasions when testifying before Congress. At the end of his presentation, Brother Anderson, for lack of a better description, "literally begged" our Delegation to "do the right thing" as a picture of Senator Barack Obama was shown on the video screens. He stated that the world was watching, waiting, and hoping, that America would elect Obama and effectively change the world!



The remainder of the day was spent listening to and voting on of the conclusion of the Proposed Constitutional Amendments from the Convention floor. We also viewed a video message from Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL). She is originally from New York, NY and has most recently sponsored the Healthy Americans Act (H.R. 6444). This Act, co-sponsored by by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in the Senate, guarantees universal, private health insurance for ALL Americans.