The president of the American Postal Staff Union, which represents over 200,000 lively and retired postal employees, has slammed a plan floated by Donald Trump to denationalise the U.S. Postal Service.
“There is talk about the Postal Service being taken private, you do know that—not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Trump mentioned at a press convention on Monday. “It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. We’re looking at that.”
In response to Trump, Mark Dimondstein, president of the union, mentioned in an announcement privatization would “end universal service.” Common service is the duty beneath U.S. federal regulation offering for mail supply all through the US, even in hard-to-reach areas.
“Universal service is especially important to rural America. Privatization also would lead to price-gouging by private companies,” Dimondstein added.
Multibillionaire Elon Musk, who spent tens of millions to assist Trump win this 12 months’s election, has endorsed the privatization concept. Extraordinarily rich people like Musk and Trump can be unlikely to expertise the service disruptions related to privatizing the mail service. Trump has surrounded himself with millionaires and billionaires who’ve a distant understanding of the trials and travails of most Individuals, significantly these within the working class.
Most Individuals have expressed extraordinarily optimistic sentiments concerning the postal service. In a Pew Analysis Heart ballot carried out in July, the company was ranked because the second-most common company, with 72% of Individuals having a optimistic view of the service. (The Nationwide Park Service got here in first, with 76% help.) Even 68% of Republicans backed the USPS, near its help amongst Democrats (76%).
Trump has been down this street earlier than. In 2018, his presidential administration proposed a plan to denationalise a part of the mail service. The plan additionally hinted at potential pay cuts for lots of of 1000’s of postal employees, calling for negotiations with unions that might “reduce costs.”
The thought was opposed by unions just like the Nationwide Affiliation of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Staff Union. In the end, the plan was scrapped, however Trump’s feedback imply that one more unpopular conservative proposal might come again to life.
