(This article first appeared in the January-February 2016 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

It’s not news that corporate vultures would like to get their hands on the most profitable parts of the Postal Service. Right-wing think tanks and politicians, along with the Postal Service’s competitors, have been advocating privatization for decades.

But in September, a prestigious “independent” think tank published a paper arguing that the USPS should be split in two – with its profitable package-delivery component privatized and universal delivery of letter mail remaining the responsibility of the Postal Service.

The paper, “Delaying the Inevitable: Political Stalemate and the U.S. Postal Service,” published by the Brookings Institution, ignited a flurry of media coverage.

Several member organizations of A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service (AGA) jumped into the fray, publishing articles opposing the paper’s recommendation.

To make her case that the USPS financial “crisis” is beyond repair, the report’s author, Elaine Kamarck, relied heavily on a paper by Robert J. Shapiro that was funded by UPS – which would benefit immensely from privatization of package delivery.

Dave Johnson of Campaign for America’s Future, an AGA signatory, posted a rebuttal, noting that in addition to the influence of UPS, the Brookings Institution lists Federal Express on its “Honor Roll of Contributors.”

Kamarck, the author of the Brookings paper, serves as co-chair of RATE, a coalition that aims to decrease corporate taxes. Its members include FedEx and UPS, which have an interest in privatizing the Postal Service. In the 1990s, she ran the Clinton administration’s “Reinventing Government” program, which cut the federal civilian workforce by 14 percent – about 300,000 people.

Brookings Under Scrutiny

In September, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned the independence of the Brookings Institution regarding a report it issued on proposed regulation of the conduct of financial services advisors.

In a letter to Warren, President Mark Dimondstein praised her efforts to “unmask the influence of corporate funders on the work of the Brookings Institution” and encouraged her to call “public attention to the think tank’s role in the assault on our national treasure, the public Postal Service.”

APWU will continue to work closely with the National Association of Letter Carriers and other members of AGA to shine a light on the Brookings Institution and how its corporate funders may be compromising its scholarship.

Allies Seek to Defeat Board of Governors Nominees

The USPS Board of Governors, which sets policy and direction for the Postal Service, was on shaky ground as 2015 drew to a close. The nine-member board was poised to have eight vacancies in December while a slate of four nominees awaited Senate confirmation.

But a coalition of civil rights groups, A Grand Alliance to Save our Public Postal Service and the APWU believe a one-member board would be better than appointing the nominees awaiting Senate action.

The coalition, organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, sent that message to Senate leadership in a Sept. 30 letter and press statement.

It would be better to “continue with a stripped-down Board of Governors than to fill those vacancies with a slate that includes nominees whose policy stances would be harmful to the USPS and ultimately to the public it serves,” they wrote.

The letter focused on two nominees whose policies would be harmful to the USPS and the public – Mickey Barnett, a former board member and lobbyist for the payday lending industry, and James C. Miller, a staunch advocate of postal privatization.

Referring to Barnett, the groups wrote, “We would be deeply troubled if anyone confirmed to a leadership position within the USPS used that position to promote the sorts of practices we have seen in the payday lending industry, or to block the advancement of alternatives.” (Postal banking is considered an alternative.)

Miller’s support for postal privatization is a matter of record. As far back as 1988, when he served in the Reagan administration, Miller said, “There is no good reason why [the Postal Service] should remain part of the U.S. government and no good reason why it should enjoy a monopoly over the delivery of letter mail.”

The APWU signed the letter along with several AGA members, including the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and Service Employees International Union. The NAACP, National Council of La Raza, the Urban League, Americans for Financial Reform, and the Center for Responsible Lending, also signed.