NALC President Brian L. Renfroe released the following statement regarding reports from The Washington Post that President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order firing the members of the Postal Board of Governors and placing the agency under the control of the Commerce Department:
The 280,000 active and retired members of the National Association of Letter Carriers have a message to deliver to the White House: Hands off the Postal Service.
Every day, 200,000 active city letter carriers uphold the Postal Service’s constitutionally mandated universal service obligation, delivering 376 million pieces of mail and packages to nearly 169 million delivery points nationwide. USPS is central to a $1.92 trillion mailing industry. U.S. letter carriers deliver 44 percent of the world’s mail.
No private shipper guarantees or offers this unmatched universal service. Without our work, 51.5 million households and businesses in rural communities would have no guaranteed deliveries of medications, checks, ballots, and other essential mail and packages.
The reported executive order jeopardizes the jobs of 640,000 postal employees, more than 73,000 of whom are veterans, and would affect the 7.9 million people employed in the mailing industry. While the potential consequences are deeply alarming, these proposals are also unconstitutional and illegal.
The Postal Service is older than our country and is enshrined in the Constitution. It is a service for the public good funded by postage and stamp sales, not taxpayer dollars.
The Constitution, carefully crafted by our nation’s founders, gives Congress, not the president, a key role in setting postal policy. In fact, the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 removed the Post Office Department from the president’s Cabinet and created USPS as the independent agency that exists today.
Americans should see this reported executive order for what it is: a direct attack on USPS employees, our universal service, and every citizen who relies on the Postal Service.
The public consistently ranks the Postal Service as one of the most trusted government agencies. That’s because Americans can count on their letter carrier in every community nationwide.
We are fighting like hell against any privatization efforts or reorganizational mandates. We will do everything in our power to ensure we continue upholding our universal service obligation that Americans depend on through a strong and public Postal Service.