Members Contact Press to Encourage Community Action

(This article first appeared in the May/June 2020 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

As part of our efforts to mobilize the public to stand up and demand urgent funding for the USPS, local officers and members are writing opinion-editorials (opeds) and letters to the editor for their local newspapers and online publications. These op-eds and letters have been published in outlets across the country. Below are highlights, condensed for space and clarity.

I am a proud postal worker. During this coronavirus pandemic my fellow frontline co-workers and I continue to go to work every day, even in these dangerous times, to serve the people who rely on us….

Thus far, Congress has provided $3 trillion in combined “stimulus” money, including $1 trillion in bailouts for private companies. Yet bipartisan congressional efforts to provide real financial relief to your public Postal Service were shamefully stopped by this administration and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

I know the public greatly appreciates and supports the Postal Service. Please contact your congressional representatives and urge them to fight for the relief the public Postal Service needs to survive. Postal workers want to continue our mission of binding the country together and providing universal service at reasonable rates to every home and business.” Sherry Whitsett, Colorado Springs Area Local, in The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO)

“Due to the pandemic, it is estimated that mail volume and revenue may drop by 50% or more in the coming months. The Postal Service has advised Congress it will run out of cash by the end of September unless Congress and the Trump Administration provide financial assistance to get it through the COVID-19 crisis…

Now, with the loss of mail volume and costs increasing, the Postal Service must have support from the next stimulus bill. The pandemic-induced loss of revenue facing the USPS is no less dramatic than for airlines and corporations. The Postal Service needs the same level of assistance provided to those entities.

The Postal Board of Governors, comprised of three Republicans and two Democrats, has unanimously called upon Congress for $89 billion in funding to stabilize a service that affects millions of American households and businesses.

Postal workers are in harm’s way on the front line of this pandemic, continuing to serve the American public. Postmaster General Megan Brennan said during an appeal for funding that postal workers “provide an essential public service and bind the nation together.” As of this writing, more than 1,200 postal workers have tested positive for coronavirus, thousands are quarantined and 44 have died…

Action is urgently needed! Please contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support funding for the Postal Service in the next stimulus bill. Further material addressing this issue, including congressional contact information is available on the website usmailnotforsale.org.” Anthony Carobine, American Postal Workers Union National Postal Press Association President, in the Iron Mountain Daily News (MI)

“Postal services and post offices are particularly critical to rural areas, small towns, the elderly, military veterans and millions of small and medium-sized businesses. The USPS is also essential to the political and cultural life of America, delivering hundreds of millions of magazines and weekly newspapers each year, plus billions of business-related and personal communications. It routinely handles tens of millions of ballots delivered to voters who request absentee ballots or who live in states that conduct elections by mail.

The USPS also plays an important role in the health care system, handling 1.2 billion prescription drug shipments a year — nearly 4 million every day, six days a week… The universal reach of the postal network is invaluable to all Americans, but especially to those in rural, inner city and exurban areas that would not be served if not for the USPS.

The USPS, held in high regard by the public, is a national treasure providing a vital service for the past 245 years. All of us, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, must stand together and demand that Washington protect it.” Cathy Hanson, Minneapolis Area Local Editor, in the Minneapolis Star-

“Perhaps the members of Congress realize what the Pew Research Center has reported, the Postal Service is the most popular government agency. The USPS is the largest, most efficient postal service on the planet, handling 47% of the worlds mail, delivering more than 212 billion pieces of mail to 157 million addresses each year. The Postal Service maintains the largest retail network on Earth, larger than McDonald’s, Walmart and Starbucks combined. The USPS does all this without one cent of taxpayer money; they rely on the sales of stamps and other postal products to run the operation.

Congress must surely know that due to the Postal Service’s mandate to provide universal delivery across the United States companies like Fed Ex, UPS and Amazon rely on the Postal Service to handle the “last mile” delivery which is the most expensive and time consuming part of the shipping process, and unlike their competitors the Postal Service can’t jack up delivery charges for remote areas.…

I wish they would think about the tens of thousands of dedicated postal employees working 24 hours per day 365 days per year to serve all of America. These men and woman have proven to be instrumental in returning communities to normal after hurricanes, tornados or wildfires, often times having the mail up and running before basic services like electricity or running water are restored. With its constantly updated change of address data base they have worked with FEMA to find people forced to relocate after disaster strikes. Almost 20 years ago they went to work every day, while Anthrax was being sent through the mail and their coworkers were sickened or killed. Today as COVID-19 spreads across the country they show up every day to keep Americas mail moving, and that is all they want to do.

Our elected officials should think about what a treasure the United States Postal Service is, and act to preserve it.” John Flattery, Central Massachusetts Area Local Preisdent, in the Worcester, MA Telegram & Gazette

“The task force that Trump created to study the postal system, headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, came up with a report in December 2018 calling for the eventual sale of the Postal Service to private corporations. Six months earlier, the federal Office of Management and Budget came out with a plan to make it more attractive to potential buyers by eliminating collective bargaining for postal workers’ wages.

Postal workers won that right because of the Great Postal Strike of 1970. It was memorialized with the creation of the APWU in 1971 and in the national agreement that the union has as the representative of workers, just as the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association have in their contracts. This is a great irritant to Trump because other federal workers don’t have these rights.

The push for privatization brings together two forces on the right: the anti-government ideologues who are at war with the Postal Service because it is consistently the nation’s most popular government agency, and the private corporations who want to get their piece of the $80 billion in business the USPS does each year. Of course, those corporations have no intention of providing the same level of service. They would almost certainly raise prices and cut or eliminate delivery in rural areas.…

In addition to providing essential services to people all over the nation, the postal service also employs more veterans and disabled veterans than anyone else. It provides living-wage, union jobs for its workers.…

The post office, founded in 1775 by Benjamin Franklin, is older than this country. It is owned by the people and it should stay that way. The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale!” Chuck Zlatkin, New York Metro Area Postal Union Legislative & Political Director, in The Indypendent