New Postmaster general announced: What this means for privatization push
It was announced in March that Louis DeJoy was stepping down after five years as Postmaster General at USPS. In that time DeJoy oversaw big increase in prices, a slowing of service, increased harassment of postal workers through the one hour office time and other attempts at speed-ups, and a botched implementation of his 10-year “Delivering for America” plan, that would have neighborhood post offices closed down, and operations moved into massive suburban Sorting and Delivery Centers, a process that degraded service and worsened access.
Taking his place is David Steiner, a Republican donor, and current FedEx board member, who has bragged about his history of union busting while CEO of Waste Management. We should make no mistake, DeJoy was pushed out because his brand was tainted from the failed attempts to implement his “Delivering for America” plan, and now Steiner is being put in as a fresh face as part of a broader attempt to privatize the postal service by the Trump administration.
With the background of a trade war, and a likely coming recession, major changes are coming to the logistics and delivery industry. Amazon is investing $4 billion into expanding its rural delivery network, and UPS dropped a large portion of their Amazon deliveries, which is now being taken up by FedEx. All of the major private sector delivery companies are preparing for a recession, and positioning themselves to benefit from any full or partial privatization of the postal service.
Under pressure from Build a Fighting NALC, and the broader reform movement, we pushed NALC leadership to call for national rallies on March 23 to fight back against any attempt to privatize the postal service. While we have criticisms that the messaging of the rally focused just on privatization, and not linking that need to the need to fight for a strong contract, these rallies were still the biggest national day of coordinated actions by NALC in over a decade. It’s going to take this sort of action, on a much larger scale, bringing in all of the postal unions, the entire labor movement, and the American public (who overwhelmingly oppose privatization), to fight back against any attempt to privatize USPS.
We must oppose privatization, but we must also fight for a postal service that works, for postal workers, and the public we serve. That is why Build a Fighting NALC is fighting for things like a $30/hour starting wage, an End to Mandatory Overtime, an All-Career Workforce, and the Right to Strike!
Without the Right to Strike, we will continue to fight with one hand tied behind our backs, and will be open to further attacks, whether it’s from the president, congress, corporations, or the Postmaster General.
Join BFN today, get active in NALC, and fight for the postal service that workers and the public need!
