DELIVERING A MESSAGE At national convention, mail carriers protest Trump’s privatization plans

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Roughly 2,000 U.S. Postal Service workers gathered Downtown on Tuesday to call attention to mail delivery services they believe face an existential threat under the Trump administration.

The rally, organized by the American Postal Workers Union, protested a forthcoming report from the White House that will likely recommend the privatization of the Postal Service, which critics say has lost money and struggled with the rise of electronic communication.

The union argued that privatization would bring an end to universal service, leading to higher prices, unequal treatment of Americans in rural areas and an undoing of the agency’s heritage.

“The American people should not tolerate selling off a national treasure to corporate pirates who will cut postal service, raise prices and destroy good-paying jobs,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the APWU, which represents 200,000 U.S. Postal Service workers. The union is holding its national convention this week at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Mr. Dimondstein said the ecommerce industry was at stake.

“It’s easy to click on a website to make a purchase, but to deliver packages to every possible address in America — no matter how distant — thousands of companies and tens of millions of consumers depend on hard work of the women and men of the U.S. Postal Service,” he said.

This is not the first time the government has looked at ways to reorganize the Postal Service, which has struggled to fund operations with the rise of electronic communications. The service reported a net loss of $2.7 billion in 2017 and has lost a total of $65.1 billion in the last decade.

But the union argued much of those losses are because of a 2006 congressional mandate that required the Postal Service to fund future retirees’ health benefits — to the tune of about $5 billion a year through 2017.

The reported numbers “have nothing to do with reality,” said Mr. Dimondstein, who insisted the service’s operational finances are strong. “It’s a way to create this climate that there’s all this financial hardship.”

In 2006, as the internet ate away at traditional mail volumes and revenue, Congress ordered the agency to review ways to restructure. A report by the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Postal Service, recommended against cuts to universal service or selling off assets to private companies or nonprofits.

The reasons behind the current review are a little murkier.

President Donald Trump, who has targeted federal agencies for