US Postal Service

New Reform Bill Reinforces Authority For Postal Banking

March 12, 2022 David Dayen, The American Prospect. Create! Congress, Finance and the Economy, Postal Banking, US Postal Service

A postal reform bill that passed Congress this week could offer another opportunity to install a postal banking system in the United States, according to a review by the Prospect. While the $107 billion in savings from ending the Postal Service’s prefunding of retirement benefits and moving postal retirees onto Medicare has received most of the headlines, Section 103 of the bill, subsection 3704, restates USPS authority to partner to “provide property and nonpostal services” to federal government agencies, as long as whatever results raises revenue for the Postal Service. This would appear to supersede one aspect of a ban on non-postal products from the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, and could pave the way to providing services that mirror a bank account for any American who wants one.

Postal Reform Act Passes In Senate, Sent To President Biden’s Desk

March 8, 2022 National Association of Letter Carriers. Resist! Congress, US Postal Service, Worker Rights

Today, in a 79-19 vote the Senate passed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (H.R. 3076). Following House passage on Feb. 8, the bill will now be sent to President Biden for his signature to become law. “This is a monumental victory for letter carriers and all Americans who depend on the Postal Service for affordable and high-quality universal service,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “I want to congratulate and thank all the NALC members who lobbied their members of Congress to win passage in the Senate and the House. Thanks to your support, dedication and action, bipartisan postal reform, that was 12 years in the making, has finally passed in both chambers.” This bipartisan legislation will improve the financial stability of the Postal Service.

The Post Office At A Crossroads

November 17, 2021 Monique Morrissey, Economic Policy Institute. Create! Governance, Postal Banking, US Postal Service, USPS

USPS has a public service mandate to provide a similar level of service to communities across the country regardless of local economic conditions. In addition to daily mail delivery to far-flung locations, the Postal Service maintains post offices even in low-income urban neighborhoods and small towns that lack other basic services. The Postal Service is able to fulfill its mission while keeping postage rates low due to economies of scale. Once the fixed costs of post offices and delivery are covered, the additional cost of new services is often minimal. If it weren’t prevented from doing so, the Postal Service could take advantage of underused capacity and build on Americans’ trust in the Postal Service to offer new services to the public while bringing needed revenue to the agency.

Postal Banking Test In The Bronx Yields No Customers

November 13, 2021 David Dayen, The American Prospect. Educate! Louis DeJoy, New York City (NYC), Postal Banking, US Postal Service

New York City - When the United States Postal Service launched a test program in September allowing people with business or payroll checks to get them loaded onto gift cards at four neighborhood post offices, it was seen as a primitive precursor to a postal banking system. But in order for the test to be successful and mature into a pilot, it has to actually be, well, tested. According to postal employees at Baychester Station in the Bronx, one of four locations nationwide where the test is being carried out, not a single business or payroll check transaction was made between September 13, when the test launched, and October 31. Some union leaders who support the postal banking concept have become frustrated by the selection of Baychester, and the lack of muscle for the project from the USPS.

‘Ten Year Plan’ Will Destroy The Postal Service; Why We Must Save It

October 18, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Joe Biden, Louis DeJoy, Postal Banking, Privatization, US Postal Service

The current US Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, and the head of the Board of Governors, Ron Bloom, launched a ten year plan that will slow mail service and raise prices. This is the final blow to defund and destroy the US Postal Service so it will be ripe for privatization. DeJoy and Bloom have financial stakes in this happening. Clearing the FOG speaks with Chuck Zlatkin, legislative and political director for the largest postal union local in the US about the plan and the devastating impact it will have on everyone who relies on the post office. Zlatkin also exposes the blatant corruption, explains how the Biden administration could save the postal service and critiques the new postal baking pilot. We have reached a point where we must act to save the postal service, or we are going to lose it.

USPS Begins Postal Banking Pilot Program

October 12, 2021 David Dayen, The American Prospect. Create! APWU, Postal Banking, US Postal Service, USPS

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has taken the most dramatic step in a half-century to re-establish a postal banking system in America. In four pilot cities, customers can now cash payroll or business checks of up to $500 at post office locations, and have the money put onto a single-use gift card. It’s the most far-reaching executive action that the Biden administration has taken since Inauguration Day. The move puts the USPS in direct competition with the multibillion-dollar check-cashing industry, which operates storefronts to allow unbanked or underbanked residents to cash their paychecks. According to USPS spokesperson Tatiana Roy, the pilot launched on September 13 in four locations: Washington, D.C.; Falls Church, Virginia; Baltimore; and the Bronx, New York.

20 State AGs File Suit Over Plan To Sabotage Postal Service

October 10, 2021 Jon Queally, Common Dreams. Resist! Attorney Generals, Legal System, Louis DeJoy, US Postal Service

Twenty state Attorneys General on Friday filed a joint complaint in an effort to block changes to the U.S. Postal Service enacted last week by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and which critics warn are an overt effort to cripple the mail service from within by slowing delivery times while also increasing the cost to consumers. The official complaint filed by the 20 AGs is directed at the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), which is charged with providing independent oversight of the USPS, but which the suit alleges betrayed its mandate by allowing the controversial plan put forth by DeJoy to move into implementation on October 1 without proper review.

‘Fire DeJoy’ Demand Intensifies As 10-Year Plan To Sabotage Postal Service Takes Effect

October 2, 2021 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Resist! Biden administration, Louis DeJoy, Privatization, US Postal Service

Defenders of the U.S. Postal Service are urgently renewing their calls for the ouster of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy as his 10-year plan to overhaul the cherished government institution is set to take effect Friday, ushering in permanently slower mail delivery while hiking prices for consumers.

When Rank And File Postal Workers Whipped Bosses, Union Leaders, And Richard Nixon

March 24, 2021 Patrick Murfin, Heretic, Rebel, A Thing to Flout. Resist! Strike, US Postal Service, Wages, Worker Rights

The day after St. Patrick’s Day in New York City was often little more than an intense, city-wide hangover. But on March 18, 1970 residents of the Big Apple awoke to more than just a headache. Thousands of local Postal workers were on the picket line in defiance of both Federal Law which prohibited strikes by government employees and their own union leadership. Within days business in the commercial and financial center of the nation ground to a halt in those pre-electronic communications days and the strike spread to more than 30 cities with 200,000 off the job. It was a big deal. A very big deal.

Prisons Prime Testing Ground For Dehumanizing Hi-Tech ‘Advances’

February 23, 2021 Raul Diego, Mintpress News. Educate! Big Tech, Capitalism, Prison, US Postal Service

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is coming under fire again from Democratic lawmakers, as well as from the American Postal Workers Union, who are calling for President Joe Biden to pave the way for DeJoy’s removal after the Trump-appointee announced higher mailing fees and logistical changes that could further slow down mail. The US Postal Service (USPS) has already suffered a more than 50% drop in on-time arrivals for first-class mail deliveries, according to the service’s own data. Nevertheless, thanks to the ubiquitous presence of high-speed internet, the personal communications of most Americans don’t seem to be fundamentally affected by the problems at USPS. Excluding the mail-in-ballots controversy leading up to the 2020 presidential election, the majority of the country remains little more than a...

The War Against The Postal Service

December 22, 2020 Monique Morissey, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! Louis DeJoy, Privatization, Trump, US Postal Service

The Postal Service is many things—among them, a public service; part of the nation’s critical infrastructure; a regulated monopoly; a good employer, especially for Black workers and military veterans; and a government enterprise competing with and supplying services to private companies. To take advantage of network economies, the United States and other countries shield their postal services from competition in exchange for delivering mail to far-flung and poorer regions. Like transportation and communications networks that are often publicly owned or function as regulated utilities, a national service with standardized pricing promotes commerce and guards against the concentration of economic power.

USPS Ordered To Reassemble Sorting Machines

October 24, 2020 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Resist! 2020 Elections, Legal System, Louis DeJoy, US Postal Service

A federal judge has ordered the United States Postal Service (USPS) to restore previously decommissioned high-speed mail sorting machines at offices that can’t process election mail fast enough ahead of the upcoming presidential election. The order is the result of a lawsuit filed by New York state in late August. In the order, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote that, if a post office or distribution center is unable to process election mail, “available processing equipment will be restored to service to ensure that USPS can comply with its prior policy of delivering Election Mail in accordance with First Class delivery standards.”

Communities Of Color Hurt The Most By Postal Service Attack

October 21, 2020 Taryn MacKinney, the Union of Concerned Scientists. Educate! 2020 Elections, Austerity, Black America, US Postal Service

With just weeks until the 2020 election, the USPS is racing to prepare for a historic surge in mail-in voting. Our recent analysis of USPS records, which we received via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, suggests that the number of mail-delivery complaints has risen since March, especially in communities of color. For nearly 250 years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been a cherished giant of public life. Its reach is immense: In 2019, postal workers traveled 1.34 billion miles to deliver nearly 143 billion pieces of mail around the globe.

California Is Ready To Pilot A Postal Banking Solution

October 14, 2020 Thomas M. Hanna and Jeff Olson, The Hill. Create! California, Postal Banking, Privatization, US Postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is under attack and at grave risk. But with that many Americans are awakening to both the value of the USPS and the manifest dangers of privatization. The crisis has also sparked renewed interest in postal banking, a win-win approach that could both make the USPS more financially resilient and provide badly needed financial services to tens of millions of Americans. Over the past several months, this constitutionally enshrined and highly-regarded public institution has been sabotaged from both within and without.

Vandalizing The Post Office

October 6, 2020 Larry Cohen, Democracy Journal. Strategize! 2020 Elections, Postal Banking, Trump, US Postal Service

Undermining democracy to win elections and protect investors and property interests in the United States is well documented and has been a consistent part of our history. However, Donald Trump’s attacks on our democracy, including his effort to privatize and disparage the public Post Office are unprecedented, and unpopular with most voters. Article 1 of the Constitution requires Congress to establish the post office, and the enabling legislation dates back to 1792. Donald Trump is constantly expanding his party’s decades-long reliance on holding down turnout to win, as white supremacist Democrats once did for nearly 100 years, beginning after the Civil War with poll taxes, literacy tests, and other restrictions on voting rights.

«1 2 3 4 »

Daily movement news and resources