The Fight of our Lives
The past couple of months have been a whirlwind for the country and the USPS. It is hard to fathom the acerated actions being taken by President Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk. Thousands upon thousands of federal employees have been laid off/fired/put out on leave. People that were just doing their jobs for our country were sliced and diced by the Musketeers. Average everyday workers who never saw this coming. People who have had their lives shattered by this administration without any concern or empathy. The attacks just keep coming. The administration has canceled the TSA Union worker agreements. They had their union rights dissolved. This is where the country is going. Strip the people of their collective bargaining rights. Strip them of their right to bargain for salaries, benefits and work rules. Destroy OSHA which is supposed to protect workers. All part of the master plan. Siphon the money from the middle class and redirect it the billionaires.
The attacks on the USPS have been pointed and both direct and indirect. Postmaster DeJoy states he has decided to retire in the middle of his 10-year plan to make the service more profitable. I say glad to see you go. He has brought the service to its knees over the past 5 years through small cuts. Death by a thousand cuts I believe it is called. He pulled machines out of service in the beginning of his tenure to throw a monkey wrench into the elections. He degraded the timelines for mail delivery and parcel delivery at the same time raising the prices. He has raised prices 6 times in his four + years to the tune of a 31% increase. He has taken thousands of collection boxes off the streets to the detriment of the customers and general public. Raise prices and cut service, that should be the motto for USPS.
Now the message is clear from the Trump administration. PRIVATIZE the USPS. Both he and Musk have been pushing this agenda over the past two months. Funny how all of the billionaires in the room agree with this thought. Corporate profiteers are looking to ransack the service. At a Morgan Stanley Conference a couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk stated that a number of federal agencies should be privatized, singling out the USPS “as much as possible.” He is parroting what Trump stated back in December.
Trump and Musk are looking to move the service under the corporate-captured Commerce Department, where it would be under the direct control of Billionaire ex- banker Howard Ludnick. Trump has not yet made that official but big business is falling over themselves in getting their hands on the service’s valuable assets. In a paper leaked from Wells Fargo’s equity research team, it lays out in full detail how Wall Street and corporate couriers could profit. The report entitled “USPS Privatization, A Framework” discusses the following:
Postage Prices. They recommend carving up the parcel service or selling to private competitors, i.e., UPS and Fed-Ex. Parcel pricing could rise by as much as 30 to 140%.
Scrapping Universal requirement. The report states that this “Statutory requirement” which requires minimum services at reasonable rates to ALL domestic address is a restructuring issue. They suggest severing the most lucrative parcel business from the less profitable letter mail delivery and selling to private investors. It also states that without the universal mandate, those areas in the country that are determined to be “unprofitable” could be scaled back or just cease entirely, while the 6-day letter mail delivery enters into a death spiral.
Sell off postal real estate. They cite that there are over 8,500 properties. It states that “the value can be harvested” by “unlocking these properties via sale or lease.
Layoffs and pension obligations. DOGE reports that there are 600,000 people in the USPS workforce with 91% unionized. They suggest mass layoffs or deferred buyouts. They suggest shifting the $400B in postal pension and healthcare liabilities to the taxpayers or selling off the assets to fund these obligations.
Wells Fargo floats the idea of scrapping the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 by sneaking in a PRA repeal into the GOP’s forthcoming budget package.
The full report can be read on Revolving Door Project, under the headline of: Wall Street Bankers Salivate over Postal Privatization.
At the end of the day, all of the above shows the mindset of the Trump Administration as well as the billionaire corporate profiteers against working class people and unions. There is not enough time or space to discuss every nuance of the ongoing attacks, but they are real and come fast every day.
I will give you one more ominous tale of worry. Yesterday I read that this past Thursday, two senators sponsored a bill called: The Federal Workforce Freedom Act. The bill is sponsored by Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah and Senator Marsha Blackburn R-Tenn. This bill would vacate every federal union and deny thousands the right to collectively bargain wages, benefits and work rules. We would all be right to work employees, with no rights. Be afraid my friends, be very afraid. This is the future under Trump and his Republican Party.
I am writing this article prior to the “Hell No” rally on 3/23/25. I expect a huge turnout and look forward to getting the public more involved. Keep pressure on your congresspeople. Make sure your voice is heard. If we do not Fight Like Hell for what we have earned and achieved over the last 50 years, we will not have anything to fight for. Once it is gone, it is gone, and we will never get it back. Your jobs, benefits and retirement are all on the table. So, let’s stop all of the petty divisions we are having and stand together in this fight.
I hope to see you on the 23 rd . Let’s Fight Like Hell
