You are reading this message from the new Branch 3 website. This website was established to better inform our members of the issues affecting their jobs and working conditions. By using the Internet Branch 3 is using a vehicle that in fact is doing the most to change your jobs. The Internet is eliminating functions that were exclusively handled by mail such as bill paying. The companies that are sending your bill over the Internet and then receiving the payment of that bill electronically are eliminating the purchase of two first class stamps. This may not seem like much but multiplied millions of times it greatly affects the income of the Postal Service. Something that affects the income of the Postal Service will affect the potential income of Letter Carriers when it comes time to bargain for wages in the National agreement. Now the positive side, the same Internet that is taking business is providing a different kind of revenue by making it easy to shop on line. Someone has to deliver the orders from online businesses. Why can’t it be the Postal Service?

A wise man once said that when one door closes another one opens. As Letter Carriers we must go through that open door, not fearing it but rather looking at it as an opportunity to secure our jobs for the future. We can’t hold back technological change but we can certainly try and shape that change to our advantage. We need to embrace that change and make it work for us.