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postal board
'Hell No!' Postal Workers Protest Illegal Trump Takeover Scheme
"The 295,000 active and retired members of the National Association of Letter Carriers have a message to deliver to the White House: Hands off the Postal Service."
Feb 24, 2025
Postal workers and labor movement allies rallied in Washington, D.C. on Monday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's reported plan to seize control of the independent and beloved Postal Service, a move that could pave the way for full privatization of the country's mail operations.
Monday's rally was organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which said last week that Trump's proposal to bring the Postal Service under the purview of the Commerce Department is "unconstitutional and illegal."
"The 295,000 active and retired members of the National Association of Letter Carriers have a message to deliver to the White House: Hands off the Postal Service," the organization said in a statement after The Washington Post revealed details of the executive order Trump is reportedly preparing to sign.
At Monday's rally, attendees—including letter carriers and union leaders—chanted "Hell no!" and waved signs that read "Fight Like Hell" to display their readiness to oppose any Trump administration takeover of the USPS, which is extremely popular with the American public.
"I want all of my postal worker brothers and sisters to know, this has nothing to do with your performance," Fredrick Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, said at the protest. "This has nothing to do with you as workers. You provide the highest level of service to the American people."
"This is about an unmitigated consolidation of power by this administration, power to put more money and more resources in the hands of the billionaires as opposed to spreading the wealth amongst the people who create the wealth every day," Redmond added.
We are standing with @NALC_National today to say #HellNo to dismantling our postal service! We are going to #FightLikeHell to protect our workers and communities! #solidarity pic.twitter.com/Ljr8npqYWL
— Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Union (@IUBAC) February 24, 2025
Monday's rally followed protests over the weekend in Portland, Oregon, where postal workers voiced concerns about the future of the USPS under Trump's leadership.
"People in rural areas wouldn't be able to get their medications that they depend on, they might not get mail at all, if it's privatized," Jae Burlingame, a longtime mail carrier, told a local media outlet on Sunday.
According to The Washington Post, Trump is weighing an executive order that would terminate every member of the Postal Service Board of Governors and absorb the USPS into the Commerce Department, which is led by Trump-appointed billionaire Howard Lutnick.
Trump said Friday that Lutnick was "going to look at" potential USPS changes and touted the billionaire's "great business instinct."
"Your reported plans for the Postal Service would put at risk the timely, affordable delivery of life-saving medications, mail-in ballots, important financial documents, and letters from loved ones."
The Postal Service is currently self-funded, relying on the sale of postal services and products such as stamps rather than tax revenue.
CNN noted Friday that "other countries have privatized their postal services in the past. But a plan to privatize the 250-year old service that predates the formation of the United States could dramatically change the way Americans receive deliveries, and even who would be able to get service."
"Current law requires the USPS to deliver to all addresses, even rural ones that are too costly for a private business to serve profitably," the outlet added. "Even many online purchases handled by private companies such as United Parcel Service depend upon the Postal Service to handle the 'last mile' of delivery to homes."
Christy Hoffman, president of the UNI Global Union, said last week that "we have seen the perils of privatizing postal services in Europe, which have led to reduced services, increased prices, job losses, and cut off rural communities where it is unprofitable to deliver mail."
"Instead of privatizing USPS," Hoffman added, "Trump should be supporting the Postal Service to seize opportunities in e-commerce, expand services, particularly to marginalized and remote communities, and safeguard a precious, public-owned, communication network that is ultimately irreplaceable."
In a letter to the U.S. president over the weekend, a group of Democratic lawmakers led by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)—who attended Monday's rally—warned that the "unprecedented and reckless plan to dismantle the Postal Service as an independent agency would directly undermine the affordability and reliability of the U.S. postal system."
"Congress prescribed a clear and critical mandate for the Postal Service: to deliver efficient, reliable, and universal service to all Americans," the lawmakers wrote. "Your reported plans for the Postal Service would put at risk the timely, affordable delivery of life-saving medications, mail-in ballots, important financial documents, and letters from loved ones, especially in rural or less-profitable areas that the private sector refuses to service."
"We urge you to immediately withdraw all plans to dismantle one of our nation's most cherished public institutions and uphold the Postal Service's independent status as required by law," they added.
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House Dems Urge Biden to 'Swiftly' Appoint Postal Board Governors
"Five price hikes since 2020, continual service delivery problems, and constant declines in mail volume are all indicators that the business model of the Postal Service needs careful attention."
Feb 01, 2024
Scores of U.S. House Democrats on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to "swiftly" nominate two members to the Postal Service Board of Governors to fill empty seats amid delayed deliveries and higher customer prices.
"Given the fundamental role that the Postal Service plays in the lives of countless Americans, there must be great care taken to choose those who influence its direction," Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said in a letter to Biden signed by 80 other Democratic lawmakers.
"Unfortunately, the Postal Service currently suffers from slow rates of delivery service and increased costs," the lawmakers asserted. "Despite the passage of the Postal Service Reform Act, the Postal Service still faces a litany of challenges. Five price hikes since 2020, continual service delivery problems, and constant declines in mail volume are all indicators that the business model of the Postal Service needs careful attention."
Noting the vacancy left by the expiration last month of Postal Govs. Lee Moak and William Zollars, the letter asks Biden to:
- Swiftly nominate two new members of the board to ensure no disruption in service to the American people; and
- Choose two candidates who will be wholly committed to lowering costs for everyday Americans and restoring the Postal Service as a public good to be enjoyed by all and not only those who can afford expensive specialty services.
"Now more than ever, it is important [to] have a full, diverse, and future-oriented Postal Board of Governors in place that will uphold its mission of public service," the lawmakers wrote.
Last October, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) asked the head of the Postal Service's accountability unit to launch an investigation into the impacts of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's 10-year austerity overhaul plan. Critics argue the plan is ultimately a privatization scheme championed by Republicans including former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner. DeJoy donated at least hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump's 2016 campaign prior to his appointment.
A Thursday
statement from Krishnamoorthi's office took aim at the USPS chief.
"Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, far too many Americans, including rural Americans, small businesses, seniors, and tribal communities, have experienced increased costs and diminishing service," the statement said, "harming those who depend on the USPS for both personal and business correspondence."
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Even After Electric Vehicle Progress, Advocates Say DeJoy Should Still Be Fired
"Any increase in E.V. acquisition at USPS is in spite of DeJoy, not because of him."
Dec 26, 2022
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's widely praised announcement last week that the Postal Service will buy tens of thousands of electric vehicles in the coming years to help replace its aging delivery fleet should not be enough to save the scandal-plagued USPS chief's job, advocates said, pointing to his refusal to support a more ambitious electrification plan and his ongoing efforts to slash jobs, consolidate mail facilities, and hike prices for consumers.
"The bottom line is that any increase in E.V. acquisition at USPS is in spite of DeJoy, not because of him," Vishal Narayanaswamy of the Revolving Door Project, told The New Republic's Kate Aronoff. "Electrification would be proceeding much faster if we had a board that could fire him."
DeJoy, a Trump and GOP megadonor, was selected to serve as postmaster general in May 2020, and even news last year that he was facing an FBI investigation for potentially unlawful campaign finance activity during his time as a private logistics executive wasn't enough to harm his job security.
The postmaster general is chosen by—and can only be removed by—the USPS Board of Governors, a body composed of nine officials nominated by the president.
In the face of massive pressure to force out DeJoy, Biden has nominated and the narrowly Democratic Senate has confirmed five board governors, giving the president's picks a majority on the postal board and enough votes to remove the postmaster general, who does not serve a fixed term.
While Biden's nominees have raised questions and concerns about DeJoy's 10-year plan to overhaul USPS operations, calling it "strategically ill-conceived" and "dangerous," they have yet to mount a serious push for his removal.
"Electrification would be proceeding much faster if we had a board that could fire him."
Narayanaswamy lamented that the White House, too, appears uninterested in ousting DeJoy. The Biden administration "does not seem to care about replacing DeJoy and has more or less dropped it as a priority," Narayanaswamy told Aronoff, who argued in a column last week that "the potential of the USPS to propel an energy transition will continue to go untapped" as long as DeJoy is at the helm.
Though the new electric vehicle plan is a significant improvement over DeJoy's earlier proposal—which called for the purchase of 90% gas-guzzling trucks—"the USPS only plans to electrify 40% of its fleet" in total, Aronoff noted.
"The newly announced purchases also only represent about 10% of the existing federal fleet of cars, SUVs, and trucks, which is the largest in the world," Aronoff continued. "That means the majority of the fleet will still run on gasoline for the foreseeable future. What's more, the internal combustion engine–powered versions of the USPS's 'Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,' or NGDVs, get just 8.6 miles per gallon."
"The potential for the USPS to act as an engine of decarbonization and set industry-wide standards for electrification is vast. But DeJoy—who's talked repeatedly about downsizing and privatizing the USPS and has lucrative ties to private logistics firms—is unlikely to see things that way," she added. "It's still possible for Biden to replace pro-DeJoy members of the USPS Board of Governors, paving the way for them to replace DeJoy himself."
Two Trump-nominated board members who have defended DeJoy—Donald Moak and William Zollars—are currently in holdover years after their terms expired earlier this month, but Biden has yet to announce any new board picks despite grassroots pressure.
In late October, the Save the Post Office Coalition—a network of more than 300 public interest groups—urged Biden to replace Moak and Zollars with retiring Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) and policy expert Sarah Anderson.
Before her election to Congress, Lawrence worked for the Postal Service for three decades. Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, has written about and researched the USPS for years, and her grandfather was a Postal Service employee.
"Congresswoman Lawrence and Ms. Anderson are public servants who would bring needed perspectives and expertise to the USPS Board of Governors at a time when the nation is looking to the board to start asking the tough questions of Louis DeJoy," said Porter McConnell, co-founder of the Save the Post Office Coalition.
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