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Privatizing Our Post Office: Who is Next of What’s Left

For decades corporations and the GOP have pressured the U.S. Postal Service to privatize. They want to break the postal union, which is one of America’s oldest and public institutions and provides employment to 574,000 people of color, women and the disabled. The postal service have an admirable record in its treatment and hiring of its workers. The postal service is the second largest employer in the United States, behind Wal*Mart.

The postal service generally pays for itself, but does not make huge profits and with the economy today it is losing money. The main reason for this loss is that the federal government under George W. Bush required the postal service to make huge payments 75 years in advance, which was $50 billion over what it should have paid, to cover the union’s health and pension benefits. If the postal office hadn’t been forced to make that overpayment, it would not have the problem its facing today.

Leading the GOP charge is southern California’s Darrell Issa, a corrupt politician if there ever was one, who sees the destruction of the post office as a huge political win, thereby garnering him more corporate favors.

The postal union is fighting back and has a new web site: savethepostoffice.com

The web site declares the Robber Barons are stealing the post office from the American people. With some reforms these union jobs can be saved. On the chopping block are as many as 4,300 of our post office employees. All unions should fight to keep the nonunion FedEX from taking these union jobs.

People need to realize what an inconvenience not having the post office would mean. If, say, FedEX takes over the role of the postal service, it would mean those of us, like myself, living in less populated areas would essentially be back to the Pony Express days for FedEx can choose where it wants to deliver mail and where it’s not cost effective.

Who is next in the corporate takeover of our country?
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