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This is my reponse to subject article posted at thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house... on July 18, 2009.

#1. Why aren't the 4 union organizations also requesting in its meeting with Obama administration the urgent need to address the deplorable and inhumane postal culture that fosters toxic workplace environments and workplace tragedies, including suicide? If the postal unions surveyed their employees, they would find this issue as the first or second top priority for action.

#2. Why the national unions and management organizations still are not standing and speaking with one voice on these two issues? The old ways must be put aside. In order to effect positive change for all the employees they represent, they need to stand in solidarity in regard to how the USPS deals with its financial crisis and how employees are treated in their workplaces. Write, call, or meet with your national union and management leaders and let them know the urgent need for solidarity on these two issues.

#3. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee with jurisdiction over the USPS is noted as saying in the article: Lynch warned against a government bailout for the Postal Service, calling it the "last, most extreme option." . . . . "I don't know if that's what [the unions are] looking for from the president, but there's little appetite over here for another bailout," he said. In the first place, no one is talking about a bailout. No wonder the unions organizations want help with Obama administration; it strongly appears that Rep. Lynch can no longer be trusted to serve the interests of postal employees, and worst, he has sunken to Republicans tactics of smoke screens by suggesting the postal unions are asking for a bail-out.

At one time Rep. Lynch was thought to be an advocate for postal employees; instead he is catering to tactics of the far right. And, you can count on conservatives Republicans and those who would like to privatize core postal operations quoting his words to support their agenda.

Action to reform the postal culture is necessary now. Postal employees, regardless of rank or position, deserve a postal culture in which the core values of respect, fairness, and validation of dignity, are not empty slogans, but instead are the reality of organizational life.

Steve Musacco, Ph.D.