APWU Joins Civil Rights, Financial Reform Groups Urging Senate to Reject Nominees to USPS Board of

[eridani]

http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/apwu-joins-civil-rights-financial-reform-groups-urging-senate-reject-nominees

10/02/2015 - The APWU joined civil rights groups, labor organizations and financial reform groups on Sept. 30 in urging Senate leaders to reject a slate of nominees to the USPS Board of Governors.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid, they wrote, “Our organizations are in agreement that it would be preferable to continue with a stripped-down Board of Governors than to fill those vacancies with a slate that includes nominees whose policy stances would be harmful to the USPS and ultimately to the public it serves.” Only three of nine governor slots are filled. Members of the board are appointed by the president and must be approved the Senate, which plans to consider four nominees as a package.

Signing the letter were Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO; Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform; Janet Murgia, president and CEO of National Council of La Raza; Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, Hillary Shelton, vice president of the NAACP; Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME; Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League; Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Mary Kay Henry, president of SEIU, and APWU President Mark Dimondstein.

“Given the harmful effects of payday lending on the communities we represent, and given the value of and need for a vibrant, public Postal Service that provides affordable, universal mail service to all – including rich and poor, rural and urban, without regard to age, nationality, race, or gender – we are especially troubled by the nominations of Mickey D. Barnett, who has previously worked as a lobbyist for the payday lending industry, and of James C. Miller, III, who dating back at least to his tenure as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1985-88, has strongly supported privatizing the Postal Service.”

The groups said they were especially concerned about Mr. Barnett’s ties with payday lending industry because of “the close relationship between the USPS and the communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by payday lending and other predatory forms of credit.