NPC Leadership

To everyone who sent me an e-mail, called me, or stopped by to see me after
the conference let me express my sincere thanks for your comments and
support of solidarity.  Let's not lose sight of the purpose behind the
workshop on Saturday. Our goal was and continues to be to build consensus
among the leadership of the National Presidents' Conference and to prepare
for the 2010 National Convention. Our discussion and debate during this
conference was intelligent, timely, and absolutely necessary. Most
importantly our discussions centered around the internal issues currently
confronting our union.

Contrary to the view of President Burrus that it was "above our pay grade"
to discuss the restructuring of the APWU I could not disagree more. The
comment, in my opinion, was condescending and unnecessary. However, I do not
intend to focus on Bill's comments, but rather to continue our collective
efforts to build consensus within the NPC. Our discussions on restructuring
did not center solely around the elimination of elected positions, but
rather it included a full range of ideas. We discussed the different methods
to bring about change, including a debate on convention resolutions vs.
membership referendums. We discussed concepts of restructuring, including
elections at conventions, elimination of positions through attrition,
elimination of appointed staff positions, realignment of positions based on
membership demographics, combining positions, the 4 year election cycle, and
a host of other concepts. We discussed the finances of the union based upon
the fact that we are now under 200,000 full dues paying members. We debated
a possible due increase, elimination of the All Craft Conference, and the 3
year convention cycle. Lastly, we discussed the future of the APWU. We
debated ways to grow the union by mergers with other unions, to continue our
aggressive internal organizing efforts, mobilizing our efforts to enact the
Employee Free Choice Act, and to develop an organizing campaign against the
private sector mail sorting companies that are taking away our work and our
jobs.

Let's always remember that we bring the delegates to the convention. We need
to continue the productive and open discussion and debate from the Virginia
Beach Conference. Only collectively will we bring about change. I thank each
delegate for your input and involvement. It is my continued honor to serve
as your Chairman. I look forward to seeing all of you at the Portland ME
Conference in October.

John H. Dirzius
Chairman NPC