The U.S. Postal Service is under attack. After a 2006 law that required them to pre-pay 75 years of pension benefits — essentially paying the pensions of postal workers not yet born — the vultures are circling and an effort to privatize the post office is coming. Former OMB director, Peter Orzag, who is now a vice president for Citigroup urged the privatization of the Post Office noting that one of its assets is an overpaid pension fund! And, he urged a subsidy for the privateers so they can provide service to rural, low-population areas. As Orszag well knows, the Post Office receives no subsidy, it is required to pay for its service out of its own funds.
Postal workers went on a hunger strike, are planning on attending both the Democratic and Republican Conventions in order to make the shrinkage of the post office an issue in the campaign. Here’s a video of a recent protest outside of the postal headquarters by postal workers joined by Occupy Caravan . . .
For more on this issue see Corporatists Seek to Loot the Post Office, Congress Aides and Abets the Decline of the Postal Service
For more on the hunger strike by postal workers see http://cpwunited.com/media-coverage