Keep Fighting for Justice This Summer

(This article appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)

This summer marks several milestone anniversaries for APWU members and our communities. The Postal Service is older than the United States itself, having been founded by the second Continental Congress on July 26, 1775. In August, we recognize the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 that created the United States Postal Service (USPS) as a financially self-sustaining government agency operating under a “universal service obligation.”

As reported by various media outlets, including Newsweek, President Trump expressed an interest in privatizing the Postal Service in December 2024 at a press conference when he stated, “There is a lot of talk about the Postal Service being taken private. It’s not the worst idea I have ever heard. It’s a lot different today, between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that. It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time.”

Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that President Trump planned to fire the Board of Governors and merge the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce. The response was quick, as people across the country not only hit the streets but also bombarded Capitol Hill with calls to say, “Hands Off Our Public Postal Service – The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale!”

APWU President Mark Dimondstein stated, “Efforts to privatize the Postal Service, in whole or in part, or to strip it of its independence or public service mission, would be of no benefit to the American people. Instead, it would drive up postage rates and lead to reduced service, especially to rural America.”

The USPS Office of the Inspector General expresses a similar sentiment on its website: “[USPS] is still required to deliver to neighborhoods across the nation, six days a week, even those far-reaching places that private carriers don’t deliver to because it’s not profitable. If exclusively run as a business, the Postal Service probably couldn’t afford to deliver there either. But, as a public service, it is required by law to do so.”

Any efforts to privatize the Postal Service or move it into a department under the Executive Branch would violate federal law and it would require congressional authorization. We must keep the pressure on Congress to “Save the People’s Post Office.” Continue to call, write, and visit your congressional representatives and ask your family, friends, and communities to do the same. Ask your House representatives to cosign on in support of House Resolution 70, a resolution expressing the sentiment that the Postal Service should not be privatized.

Celebrating Social Security and Medicare, and Our Fight to Save Retiree Benefits

In July, we celebrate 60 years of Medicare, and in August we celebrate 90 years of Social Security, created in 1935. As we recognize the anniversary of Social Security, millions of federal, state, and local public employee retirees are reaping the full retirement benefits that they paid into Social Security. After over 40 years of adverse impact, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) were repealed by Congress and signed into law on Jan. 6 by then-President Biden.

We cannot relax and enjoy our retirement when we know that Congress is looking to reduce and eliminate our benefits under Medicare and Social Security. Fortunately, proposals in the GOP’s H.R. 1 budget reconciliation bill that would have adversely impacted Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) benefits were removed from the bill due to our actions in opposition to them. Unfortunately, present retirees and working people all across the country will still feel the impacts of other changes made in the bill to Medicaid and our social safety net.

Call, write, and visit your congressional representatives to let them know that you will not forget about their wrong votes on this bill during the 2026 midterm elections. Remind them that wrong votes in Congress have consequences. ■