US Postal Serviceconfronted with an uncertain future after resigning this weekGeneral Postcard Louis Dadeand the proposal of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, heading the Department of Government Effectiveness that the postal servicecan be privatized.
Trade unions representing postal workers were subject to privatization ideas and protests across the country.
While they support the upgrade effort,including those initiated by DejoyTrade union leaders warned that private corporation permission would launch the mail in the US, ultimately harming daily citizens, especially about 51 million people living in rural areas that depend on the postal service.
“This is a terrible idea for all we serve,” Brian L. Renfro, President of the National Association of Narrows of letters said on Tuesday.
What next may depend on who will become the next general of the Posthtar. A US Postal Service The Council of Heads, the independent creation of the executive power, which controls the postal service, has retained a world consulting firm to search the 76th General Post -Director and CEO.
Currently, the USPS has about 640,000 workers who set tasks to make supplies from domestic cities to rural areas and even distant islands.
Trump and Musk are trying to make great changes to USPS
In February,said TrumpIt can put the US postal service under the control of the trade department in what will be the absorption of the executive agency, which has operated as an independent enterprise since 1970.
“We want to have a post office that works well and does not lose a lot of money,” Trump said during the oath for the Secretary of Trade Hovard Lutnik. “We think about it. And it will be a form of merger, but it will remain a postal service and I think it will work much better.”
Although he said nothing about privatization at the event, the president expressed support for the idea in the past. In December he suggested privatizing the service given the competition with which she faced AmazonThe upside, Federation and others.
“This is an idea that has been a lot of people for a long time. We look at it,” the President said.
Musk, meanwhile, voiced support this month at the Privatization Privatization Conference, saying: “We must privatize everything that can be wisely privatized,” the New York Times reports.
Protest by postal workers, warning that Americans may lose their favorite service
In recent days, postal workers have been holding protests across the country, many chanting “US mail is not sold” and some signs saying: “The post office belongs to people, not billionaires,” a reference to Musk.
Renfro said the purpose of the protests is to make the US public realize that the postal service was considering sharp changes.
“Our message:” No “private business is interested in doing profitable things as they should be,” he said. “
How did the USPS be in such a bad financial position?
Since the reorganization in 1970, USPS has been largely funded on its own. The bulk of his annual budget for $ 78.5 billion comes from the customer’s fee, reports the Congressional Research Service. The Congress provides relatively small annual appropriations of $ 50 million in the 2023 financial year-for free and reduced postal services.
Among the problems that include the revenue mail of first class and the cost of retirement payments, the postal service has accumulated87 billion dollarsFrom 2007 to 2020. However, in the last quarter, the service reported a profit of $ 144 million, explains his 10-year Dejoy plan for the modernization of STEM operations and losses. The service reported a net loss of $ 2.1 billion for the same quarter of last year.
“Strongly improving our products portfolio, we increase our competitive position on the delivery market,” said DejiIn a written statementFebruary accompanies the results of the first quarter for the 2025 financial year.
Trade union leaders said on Wednesday that they hoped that the next master master would improve with the modernization plan and consider the use of the postal service to provide other public services, including major banking, electric vehicles and even US census work.
“Our network of physical places, trading places … Our delivery network puts us in a position to do so many different things,” Renfro said.
Originally this story was presented on Fortune.com
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2025-03-25 22:16:00
Susan Haigh, The Associated Press
