Whether negotiating to turn part-time jobs full-time, to allow headphones and tennis shoes on the work floor or to maintain the safety of postal workers after the deadly anthrax attacks that killed two postal employees and sickened others, the hallmarks of William Burrus’s service for APWU have been fairness, flexibility and safety.
Bill Burrus joined the post office in 1958 as a distribution clerk in Cleveland after serving three years in the U.S. Army. He took part in the Great Postal Strike of 1970 and went on to serve his local as president in 1974. In 1980, he served as vice president under the irrepressible Moe Biller. The two transformed the APWU into the progressive political force it is today. He led the union to become one of the first to endorse Barack Obama.
Bill Burrus never missed a chance to fight for consumers, either. When he saw major mailers hijacking the postal rate-setting process, robbing the Postal Service of necessary revenue, Burrus fought back against at every opportunity. He never minced words. He called the practice an evasion of the Postal Service’s legal requirement to offer “universal service at uniform rates” and described the discounts as a “Ponzi-like scheme” that “Bernie Madoff would be proud of.”
Always, Bill Burrus has had an eye toward the long-term well-being of postal workers. His proudest achievement came before his election to national office. In 1978 he led a successful fight against a cap on cost-of-living increases. An artificial limit on wages would have left postal workers vulnerable to inflation. For 32 years, members have benefited greatly from rejecting that agreement.
Over his decades of service, Bill Burrus provided his union and the entire union movement a passionate voice for working families and an inspiring vision of what could be. He remains fully engaged in contract negotiations and efforts on Capitol Hill to pass legislation critical to USPS finances, to fight the elimination of Saturday delivery and to stop the closure of stations and branches.