L Dabor Aay reflection on unions, R.S. Hostal Service

This year, Labor Day will be different. The pandemic, the visibility of the plight of non-unionized essential workers, and the struggles of the country to find common ground have forced us to reflect on the working people of America.

The Postal Service and postal unions have become a microcosm of these issues. Every postal worker is now an essential worker, facing the pandemic up close and personal every working day. The ability of the Postal Service to reach every dwelling in America is critical when most other daily movement has stopped. And the attitudes of individuals toward this constitutionally mandated and largely beloved government service often reflect the differences tearing us apart today.

The Postal Service has fulfilled its mission consistently for 245 years. Its unions, in fact all unions, have helped raise countless people, including me, from the working poor to the more secure middle class.

In 2006, members of Congress eager to put the Postal Service totally in private hands, and weaken its unions, placed a financial burden on it that virtually guaranteed bankruptcy: The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. That same congressional faction now touts the organization as a poorlyrun business, perhaps forgetting that they run it. And don’t fund it.

As someone who has benefited as a worker from the actions of unions, and has benefited as a citizen from the existence of a postal service, I urge you, this Labor Day, to please take a look at where your candidates stand on union, labor, and postal service issues. It is a good indicator of whether they view their constituents as the bedrock of a stable economy and democracy, or as a future source of revenue and cheap labor for the already wealthy.

Pameela Burrell,