Government-Created Funding Crisis
Postal
workers are contending with a funding crisis
created by the government
to justify privatizing the postal service. A law
passed in 2006
requires that the United States Postal Service
(USPS) prefund 75 years
of future health care premiums for retired postal
employees. As the
National Association of Letter Carriers points
out, "This prefunding
mandate, which no other enterprise in the country
faces, costs an
average of $5.4 billion annually since 2007,
accounting for nearly 90
per cent of the agency's losses. Between 2013 and
2018 it accounted for
100 per cent of the losses. On an operational
basis, the Postal Service
has been profitable for most of the past decade."
This
requirement is part of the anti-social offensive
to undermine the
functioning of USPS so as to justify privatization
and attacks on its
workers.
 Previous efforts
at privatization include a Presidential Task Force
chaired by the
Treasury Department's Steven Mnuchin that in
December 2018 proposed
unprecedented service cuts to the Postal Service,
cuts in postal worker
pay and benefits, and increases in package prices.
This followed a June
2018 Office of Management and Budget report that
called for postal
service privatization, something Mnuchin, a former
hedge fund operator,
continues to promote. The Treasury Department is
involved as the USPS
commonly draws on a $15 billion line of yearly
credit from the
Treasury, authorized by Congress 30 years ago.
Current
government attacks also include a refusal to
provide emergency funding.
First-class and marketing mail, the service's top
two funding sources,
have slowed down significantly due to the pandemic
while provision of
needed safety equipment -- still insufficient --
has increased. Without
the pandemic and without the 75-year benefit
requirement, the USPS is
self sustaining.
USPS is also largely independent
of direct government interference. The appointment
of Louis DeJoy as
Postmaster General, along with interference by
Mnuchin, are efforts to
change that and make it easier to attack the
workers and USPS as a
public service.
The American Postal Workers Union
(APWU) said in May: "Fifty years ago, postal
workers waged a heroic
nationwide strike to win better pay, benefits and
the right to
collective bargaining. This strike also recreated
the United States
Postal Service as an independent agency, designed
to be free from the
political patronage and cronyism that had plagued
the old Post Office
Department. The APWU is deeply concerned with the
appointment process
to make Mr. Louis DeJoy, a multi-million-dollar
major donor to
President Trump, the next Postmaster General and
whether the
Administration has returned to the days of
political interference and
patronage. He can choose to be a Postmaster
General who implements the
destructive plans of this White House: raising
postal rates, cutting
services, undermining stable union and
family-sustaining jobs and
selling the public Postal Service to corporations
for their private
profit. And if that is his choice, Mr. DeJoy will
be met with stiff
resistance from postal workers and the people of
this country."
The developments have shown that their concerns
are legitimate
and the broad resistance to privatization and
destruction of the public
service persists.
 Mnuchin has also
used the emergency funding required by USPS at
this time to further
interfere. A $10 billion loan from Treasury was
included in the CARES
Act passed in March. The CARES Act
also included hundreds of billions of dollars,
basically with no
strings attached, for the giant monopolies. USPS
was to get $10
billion, even though its Board of Directors have
asked Congress for $75
billion in funding -- $25 billion in emergency
appropriations, another
$25 billion for "shovel-ready" projects to
modernize the agency's aging
vehicle fleet and facilities, and an added $25
billion line of credit.
Mnuchin has so far refused even the $10 billion.
"We are going
to put certain criteria for a postal reform
program as part of the
loan," Mnuchin said.
The unions point out that
currently, the USPS Board of Governors has the
exclusive authority to
appoint or remove the Postmaster General or
"direct and control the
expenditures and review the practices and policies
of the Postal
Service." Mnuchin is trying to gain greater
control so that many USPS
management decisions, including the terms of major
contracts and
policies related to privatization and pricing of
packages and first
class mail would be decided by the U.S. Treasury
Department, not the
USPS Board of Governors.
The appointment of
multimillionaire DeJoy as Postmaster General is
itself part of this
direction, as his attacks on workers and USPS as a
public service
indicate. DeJoy is the first Postmaster General in
more than 20 years
to lead the agency without prior experience
working there. The USPS
Board of Governors itself now consists of four
members who have been on
the job for less than two years. More experienced
executives have
resigned in protest of Mnuchin's interference, or
have been removed by
DeJoy.
The public has stood firm with postal
workers and continues to join with them in
demanding that USPS remain a
public service for the public good. In actions,
petitions and polls, a
majority have called for full funding now and
guaranteeing the health,
safety and jobs of postal workers providing a
vital public service.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 34 - September 12, 2020
Article Link:
Government-Created Funding Crisis
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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