He just can’t avoid attempting to throw a monkey wrench into the works. He wants to take away the right for postal workers to collectively bargain. Looks like some people need to organize a protest on C-Street.

I urge you to oppose the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Funding Reform Act of 2009 (S. 1507). An amendment to the bill, offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and adopted by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, would require arbitrators to take the financial health of the Postal Service into account when ruling on postal workers’ contracts. Under current law, arbitrators must consider the “comparability” of postal wages to employees in the private sector who perform similar work.

The provision renders the bill unacceptable to postal workers, because it interferes with our collective bargaining process. Arbitrators routinely consider the Postal Service’s financial status as part of the context in which negotiations are conducted. However, attaching this specific requirement to the law leaves workers at a severe disadvantage, and makes the bargaining process subject to manipulation.

S. 1507 was intended to provide short-term financial relief to the cash-strapped Postal Service.