Is the nation’s biggest union workforce, at the Postal Service, President Trump’s next target?
The Washington Post broke the news February 20 that Trump was on the verge of issuing an executive order to dissolve the independent leadership of USPS and move it into the executive branch under the Department of Commerce, now led by enthusiastic privatizer Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street banker. Trump confirmed the next day that he was “looking at” this option.
The other shoe hasn’t dropped yet. But one immediate threat is that moving USPS into the executive branch could provide a rationale to cancel union contracts. This might expose the Postal Service to the same kind of bloodbath that other federal agencies are enduring at the hands of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“A postal worker has a union that negotiates with the Postal Service that betters their life,” Mike Bates, president of the Des Moines Postal Workers (APWU) local. “A federal worker is pretty much dictated to, what they are going to get from the government. When I say that, I see the wheels start turning.”
Beyond that, the move would be a big step towards privatizing the Postal Service, a longtime Wall Street aspiration.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—a Trump appointee and major foe of postal workers—announced his resignation days before the news broke. The Postal Board of Governors held an emergency meeting and retained its own lawyer to fight Trump’s plan.
The two biggest postal unions, the Letter Carriers (NALC) and APWU, held a joint rally, and APWU President Mark Dimondstein declared that the attack would be “outrageous, unlawful” and “part of the billionaire oligarch coup.”
“These are not idle threats,” said Seattle letter carrier Virgilio Goze, sergeant-at-arms of NALC Branch 79. “Trump might be fickle, but the people around him are not. They’re outright privatizers, and they will do illegal stuff.”