What The Hell America!

Following reports that the Trump administration is interested in restructuring and perhaps even privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, unions representing postal workers are fighting back.

On March 20, postal workers who are represented by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and their allies will hold a day of action to resist “threats of privatization and political interference to the public Postal Service,” according to the union’s website. Locals around the country are participating.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which represents U.S. Postal Service employees who are city letter carriers, will host local rallies on March 23 at NALC branches to “fight like hell” against “dismantling” the widely cherished public delivery service.

On Tuesday, NALC also held an event in Atlantic City, New Jersey where workers rallied against changes to the Postal Service.

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly considering putting the Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department. The agency, which is overseen by a bipartisan board of governors whose members appoint a postmaster general to run day-to-day operations, has functioned as an independent entity since the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Congress passed that law to make it freestanding and to shield it from “political tinkering,” according to The Washington Post.

Also according to the Post, which cited postal experts, putting the Postal Service under the Commerce Department would likely violate federal law.

In December, the Post reported that Trump had designs to privatize the Postal Service.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is playing a core role in the Trump administration’s efforts to slash government, has also said the Postal Service should be privatized.

President of APWU, Mark Dimondstein, warned against privatization in a Q&A posted to the union’s website on Monday.

“The USPS is owned by the people and exists to serve everyone with universal, affordable service; if privatized, it would exist to make maximum profit to enrich corporations, Wall Street, and billionaires,” he said. “Privatization is bad for workers, bad for unions, and bad for the people. Prices go up and service goes down, while the bosses and billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos laugh all the way to the bank.”

“Let’s be clear-eyed and ready for battle and declare ‘The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale!’ Onward!” said Dimondstein.

According to materials distributed by NALC, “any effort to privatize or restructure USPS is a direct threat to: 640,000 postal employees, including 200,000 city letter carriers represented by NALC The universal service every American relies on Millions of households and businesses, especially in rural America.”

This is not the first time that the Postal Service has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Trump was interested in privatizing the Postal Service during his first term, but backed off the idea in the face of opposition.

In April 2020, a Postal Service Board of Governors member resigned over the Trump administration’s attempts to politicize the Postal Service. Louis DeJoy, a Trump campaign donor, was appointed Postmaster General in 2020. DeJoy recently announced he plans to retire soon.