Hudson Valley Postal Workers Join National Movement Protesting Privatization Of USPS
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While Hudson Valley locals were out shopping on Sunday for their errands, some were surprised to see a group of people dressed in red shirts at the intersection of NY-300 and Rte 17 protesting something in front of the TGI Fridays. Some people mistook them for MAGAs, while others were asking what the signs “Fight Like Hell” were demanding people fight for - or against.
Upon zooming in of the photo, one could see USPS Branch 137 was represented which meant only one thing: that the mail Carriers of the Hudson Valley (Beacon, Newburgh, Fishkill, etc.) were at it again, trying to get their message across that the United Postal Service is in trouble by way of being targeted by its Postmaster General Lois DeJoy, who was a Trump appointee during the first presidency, to become privatized.
During the Biden Administration, Lois DeJoy spent his time outlining a strategic plan to reduce use of local Post Offices; reduce staff working inside of the Post Offices; relocate where the mail carriers go to sort the mail to large facilities far away from the community the letter carriers are delivering to; inconvenience the number of letters, catalogues and large envelopes being circulated; and slow down the delivery mail.
Letter carriers in Beacon experienced it, and warned the community that the Beacon Post Office was going to be empty. Indeed, staff was reduced to 1.5 people working (a full-time employee and a part-time employee), when up to 5 people are usually planned to be there. Citizens not following the drama of the employment cuts of the USPS usually aren’t aware of this, and blame the Clerk behind the counter for any slowness.
All of Beacon’s Letter Carriers drive their trucks to an old facility in Newburgh, sort the mail, drive it back over the bridge, deliver it, and then drive back to Newburgh before driving themselves home. Mail carriers confirmed to A Little Beacon Blog that the amount of driving increased for them thereby granting them overtime. But none seemed happy about receiving the overtime pay, since the driving is so illogical. Similar sentiment was expressed by the striking Corrections Officers who are forced to work 24-48 hour shifts and receive overtime.
What The USPS Postal Workers Are Protesting
Privatization of the Postal Service, to be in the hands of billionaire Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick. Howard is the same guy who said that only fraudsters would call to complain about not receiving their Social Security checks. That if his 96 year-old mother-in-law didn’t get her check, that she wouldn’t call, and would just wait for the problem to sort itself out.
Rural surcharges.
Treatment of states and cities differently.
Slowing of the mail (already been systematically happening during Biden administration).
Reduction of Post Offices (already been systematically happening during Biden administration).
Reduction of rural mail addresses being serviced, instead going to “pickup locations.”
Difficulty for medicine, bills and regular things like new driver’s license and new bank cards to be delivered.
Impact of mail-in votes, if mail is chaotic.
Postmaster General Lois DeJoy’s requested and signed agreement with to Elon Musk’s DOGE to “assist the Postal Service in identifying and achieving efficiencies. DeJoy provided a list of some of the issues that DOGE might be able to help with, including miscalculations of retirement obligations, mismanagement of workers comp, and unfair mandates to fund retirement and health care accounts.” People who want the Postal Service privatized have always wanted to do away with or reduce the retirement and health care paid out to employees.
The USPS is a self-sufficient, independent agency. It is not funded by taxpayer dollars. Yet, it gets mandated by the federal government to work in certain ways that cost it more time and money. Trump and Republicans have wanted to privatize it for a long time.
The USPS employs 640,000 postal employees (73,000 of whom are veterans), and services 51.5 million rural addresses. The National Association Of Letter Carriers calls privatization “a threat to our nation’s Constitution.”
According to reporting at Save The Post Office, “Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to dissolve USPS’s bipartisan board of governors and place the agency under the control of the commerce department secretary, Howard Lutnick, the Washington Post recently reported.”
The Washington Post says: “The move threatens to upend trillions of dollars in ecommerce business and the 250-year-old Postal Service..” Also reported by the newspaper: “The board is planning to fight Trump’s order, three of those people told The Washington Post. In an emergency meeting Thursday, the board retained outside counsel and gave instructions to sue the White House if the president removed members of the board or attempted to alter the agency’s independent status. Trump’s order to place the Commerce Department in charge of the Postal Service likely violates federal law, according to postal experts.”
James O’Rourke, who studies the Postal Service at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, told The Washington Post: “This is a somewhat regal approach that says the king knows better than his subjects and he will do his best for them. But it also removes any sense that there’s oversight, impartiality and fairness and that some states wouldn’t be treated better than other states or cities better than other cities. The anxiety over the Postal Service is not only three-quarters of a million workers. It’s that this is something that does not belong to the president or the White House. It belongs to the American people.”
Most Threats To The USPS Are Published At “Save The Post Office”
Save The Post Office is a website run by a USPS hawk who may be one of the only reporters covering USPS developments in such a detailed way. But he’s on every move. For example, he is reporting on the new “rural surcharge.” He covers the rural surcharge in this way:
“When it comes to postal rates and service standards, all ZIP codes have been treated equally. It doesn’t matter if it’s densely populated or sparse, urban or rural. The ZIP Code helps bind the country together. But all that is changing.
“The Postal Service’s Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) plan, now under review by the Postal Regulatory Commission, would end afternoon collections at post offices, which will add a day to service standards for outgoing mail at offices more than 50 miles from a Regional Processing and Distribution Center. The plan uses the 5-digit ZIP of the originating post office to identify where the downgrades in service standards will apply. Under the current system, a 3-digit ZIP prefix is used to define the standards, which doesn’t allow for the kind of targeted service reductions of the RTO.”
Pictures of protesting postal workers in different states are below from the National Association Of Letter Carriers and Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation Facebook pages. These include Puerto Rico, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, and others.
