in studio with us at this hour, cliff guffey is president of the american postal worker's union. n very bad piece of legislation republicans have put out which would really gut the united states postal service. it is hr 2309. what should americans do about this? how can they get involved? >> well, we want 2309 to be either defeated or to be modified to be more like the senate bill. the senate bill has some rational means of allowing the postal service to have their own money returned to them so that they can downsize in a rational manner. that's the problem the post office has right now. yes, there may be people out there in the public who will never use the post office again but they're not paying for it. and what we need is the postal service to have the ability to use the funds that it's gotten and turned over to the federal government, returned to them so that they can downsize in a manner that's reasonable and will not hurt the american public. >> bill: you can go to their web site. final question before we go to our calls. privatizing the post office, i mean that would -- as

is to talk more about this i'm joined now by chuck baiter he is the treasurer for the american postal workers union welcome chuck thank you for having us so postal workers blame congress for putting the agency in danger why exactly in two thousand and six congress passed a bill called the postal accountability enhancement act one provision of the bill requires the postal service the only agency government or private anywhere in america to prefund future retirees health care benefits seventy five years into the future which burdens the u.s. postal service with a payment of five point five billion dollars per year and certainly that's a lot of money and a big burden to bear why you single out the postal service the honest fact behind the scenes that we need to make the american public aware of is their interest corporate interests who are trying to privatized the postal service by passing this provision in the law in two thousand and six their intent and their sole intent was to drain the postal service financially to its breaking point which they have succeeded in doing but we need the public to fig

american worker. when it comes to the issue of unions, think of the imagine unionized institutions, steel companies, auto companies, postalervice, these are institutions going bankrupt. you have to ask the question, are unions necessary? and the private sector, as you know, only about 6% or 7% of workers are in unions. all of the growth of unions is in government. >> richard? >> here what happens i know. whenever we had collective bargain is the cornerstone of a balanced economy. when we had 35%, 40% of the american workers in collective bargaining the level of inequality in the country was going down, level of wages for everyone was rising. as collective bargaining went down inequality went up. you asked a u.s. steel worker to compete with a million that was made in 1890 with a mill made in 1980. that was part of the world that they were competing in. they were the most productive, the american worker is the most productive, and when we work together with our employers, nobody can beat us. >> all right. >> you ought to be advocating workers and management getting together not making wore on them. >> we need more capital

american worker. when it comes to this issue of unions, what i meant when i said they contaminate thing, think of the major steal companies, auto companies the postalce, state and local governments these are all institutions that are going bankrupt. you have to ask the question, are you yoon ons still relevant today? are they still necessary. the private sector, richard, as you know, only about 6 or 7% of workers are in unions. all the growth of unions in is government. >> here is what i know, when ever we had collective bargains the corner stone of a balanced economy. when we had 35 or 40% of the american workers in collective bargaining, the level of inequality of this country was going down. the level of wages for everyone was rising. as collective bargaining went down, inequality went up and the 1% did really great. stars let me give you one example how he overgeneralizes. you ask a u.s. steel worker to compete with a middle that was made in 1809 and mill that was made in 1980 that was part of the world that they were competing in ch h most productive they had. the american work sers the most productive and when we work together with our employ