The United States Postal Service is celebrating 250 years this July. The Second Continental Congress created the public service known as the United States Post Office in 1775.
One hundred and ninety-five years later then President Richard Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act replacing the cabinet level Post Office Department with what we know today the U.S. Postal Service, its own federal agency in 1970.
The act also required the USPS to be self-financing and in 2006 Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act mandating the service save funds for the medical benefits of future retirees, something no other agency or private company required.
Over sixteen years later, Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act in 2022 that forgave the mounting $57 billion in debt and stopped the requirement to cover future retiree benefits decades in advance.
Throughout that time thousands of USPS workers continue to deliver mail, moving from letters to mainly packages, through a recession, pandemic and amidst calls for the U.S. government to end its longest public service.
The loudest voice calling for privatization is Elon Musk, during a virtual appearance at a Morgan Stanley technology conference on Wednesday, March 5th, he claimed the USPS and the transportation service Amtrak were failing and needed private ownership.
National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 318 President Justin Lott said some members in his union believe the claim is smoke and mirrors, but Lott disagrees.
“Everything we've seen in the last six weeks is they say something that's kind of a projection of what they want to do afterwards,” Lott said in an interview with WVIK. “So we're just trying to make people aware of what is the possibility of what could happen when we really don't want a privatized Postal Service…It's a long process if we privatize it. And you're going to miss out on essential services, especially in rural areas where businesses depend on us being there.”
NALC Branch 318 covers Moline, East Moline, Morrison, Prophetstown, Aledo and Geneseo.
NALC Branch 318 Treasurer Ross Thorpe said they’re holding a rally this Sunday, March 9th, from 4 to 6 p.m. in front of the Walgreens at 4000 Avenue of the Cities to rally against calls for privatization.
“My goal is to get people lined up from 41st Street all the way down to 34th Street and take up seven city blocks,” Thorpe said. “Now, the understanding of this rally is it's not just to protect our jobs, but every other federal agency has been under fire. And we're hoping to gather support from any and all of them. A lot of the federal agents, we can't – you know– we can't strike. It's not allowed. And so – but we can rally and we can show support for each other.”
Lott and Thorpe say members of Branch 318 are traveling south Sunday morning to rally alongside letter carriers in Bloomington from noon to two before heading back for their own rally.
Thorpe said letter carriers are still working without a contract, with a set date for arbitration to begin on March 17th. The lack of a new contract is making it difficult for the USPS to fill vacant roles like part-time flexible employees in Moline.
“So I was just in a meeting last night [Wednesday March 5th] with a few other offices. And in the Davenport area, they're missing several career employees and they have more retiring,” Thorpe said in an interview with WVIK. “Rock Island is missing employees. Bettendorf seems to be the only one in the local area that seems to be staffed. But that can change in a moment's notice. Right now, our contract is set up to where we're still paying the wages that would be equitable to what they were paying in 1970. So you equate that with the cost of inflation and our wages haven't gone up.”
Last month, Postmaster General of the USPS Louis DeJoy announced his resignation in the middle of his ten-year ‘Delivering for America’ plan that includes consolidating mail processing centers.
Lott said he and other members of the NALC are not against changes at the USPS.
“It's just you can't take an ax where scalpels need to be done and certain changes need to be done,” Lott said. “Hitting it with an ax and a hammer, it just destroys it even worse. Not just the Postal Service, I also rely on the VA as being a veteran. We employ 73,000 – not we, but the U.S. Postal Service, 73,000 veterans. They're doing the same thing with the VA. These are services for the American people that shouldn't go away.”
This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.
