For many of us our focus has moved on from the Fall elections to discussion of the proposed Tentative Agreement. While I will not opine on our TA I would urge you to read it thoroughly and seek answers to any questions you may have before casting your ballot.

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      While the tentative agreement may be number one on most peoples minds, the State Association’s purpose is to handle politics and legislation so I will try to bring you up to speed on the current political landscape as I see it.
 

      The election results while not surprising, were disappointing to organized labor. In Michigan we fared fairly well with some disappointments both on the state and federal levels. The Michigan Supreme Court results were encouraging and will help temper the fires of “big business.” Nationally the vote broke late and broke hard toward the GOP. Despite President-elect Trump’s flaws enough of the country was persuaded that the ideas he laid out and his outsized personality will be the direction we will go in for the next four years. While I’m certain we will hear much fear mongering and hand wringing I urge you to not be afraid. There will be talks of privatization, and some assaults on the federal workforce but overall, we are the employees who do the work. If you hear voices talking about waste and inefficiency, tell them – yes there are some. But the waste and inefficiency are on the part of management not the letter carrier! Most of us could give management numerous ideas that would reduce work hours and create savings if only management would listen! They could start following our contract for example!
 

      On the legislative front we do have one victory that’s close and that is the Social Security Fairness Act. This is legislation that we have been working on for many, many years. Anyone remember the SOAR breakfasts? SOAR was an annual event in Michigan that brought in numerous Congressmen and gave us the opportunity to persuade them on issues of importance to Federal Employees. Federal workers from all parts of government banded together to try to pass legislation that would remove penalties incurred by federal annuitants who also qualified for Social Security. It has been a long, hard struggle, let’s hope these retirees get the outcome they have long deserved.
 

      While we have several other legislative priorities such as the “Protect Our Letter Carriers Act” -POLCA and the “Federal Retirement Fairness Act” just to name a few, we will have to see how the legislative ground on Capitol Hill shifts after January to handicap the likelihood of either of these bills becoming a reality in the near future. To be frank, the majority in the House is so narrow that I expect there to be substantial gridlock, which might not be a bad thing. I do hope that now that the election is over and one way or another our contract will finally be resolved it will encourage more of our members to support our political action fund, LCPF. The changes in Washington may make many of our members realize just how important what happens in DC is to all of us and our retirements and benefits. We will discuss LCPF, these bills and many more legislative challenges that are sure to happen in depth at our State Convention in 2025. The convention will be in Traverse City April 28th and 29th and branches should be receiving a Convention Call in the very near future. I hope you can attend and I hope Brother Joe Golonka is able to forecast some good weather for us! We will be returning to the Great Wolf Lodge again where we convened in 2019.

 

      As the New Year approaches it’s a great time to reflect on the past year and review and reflect on your goals for 2025 and beyond. I hope you are all able to find the time to do so and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Seasons Greetings and best wishes for a Happy New Year from my family, to yours.