‘Hounds are at the door’: Postal workers sound alarm as Trump and Musk push USPS privatization

For only $0.73, Americans can send a 1-oz. letter from the Florida Keys to a remote area of Alaska. And some aging Gen-Xers still pay their utility bills with paper checks because 73 cents is cheaper than paying $2.50 or $3 for a “convenience fee” if they pay them online. That 73-cent stamp is only offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS), not by the United Parcel Service (UPS) or Federal Express. And many postal workers are warning that if the Postal Service is fully privatized — which President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk favor — the convenient, affordable services it presently offers would no longer exist.Former U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee who left the USPS on March 24, drew a great deal of criticism from postal workers for, they said, undermining the USPS. Some of them blamed DeJoy for slowing down mail delivery. READ MORE: ‘Repressive tactics’: Highly-respected global org issues Kristi Noem a warningBut according to The Guardian’s Michael Sainato, postal workers “fear the worst is yet to come” during Trump’s second term.In an article published on April 24, Sainato reports, “Many feared DeJoy, a prolific Trump donor and trucking logistics executive who pushed a 10-year consolidation plan at the agency, would be the man who would finally dismantle the United States Postal Service (USPS). Now, the service is facing off with an empowered Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire backer and chainsaw-wielding leader of his government job-cutting ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE). At stake, supporters argue, is the very existence of a service woven into U.S. society, which can be traced back to 1775.”Don Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, fears that USPS privatization is a very real possibility.Maston told The Guardian, “These are real threats. The hounds are at the door.”READ MORE: ‘Chilling’: Trump official threatens staff with criminal sanctions for speaking with pressQuite a few postal workers are warning that privatization would be costly for both businesses and consumers, especially in rural areas.Tameka Brown, president of the Louisiana Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, told The Guardian, “There are other organizations on the chopping block right now, and it is just an amount of time before they get to us. So we just need to get the message out and get ahead of them to say ‘hands off the post office.’ We are the lifeline for a lot of American people, so to feel that your job is being threatened, it’s heart-wrenching.”READ MORE: ‘Afraid’ Trump ‘will lose’: Lawyers blast firms capitulating to Trump in scathing letterRead Michael Sainato’s full article for The Guardian at this link.

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