Are USPS Cuts Motivated By Voter Suppression Or Privatization-- Or Both?
- 'Are USPS Cuts Motivated by Voter Suppression or Privatization or Both?'- The Postmaster General's actions are advancing 2 of Trump's goals: undermining confidence in vote by mail & laying a foundation for postal privatization.
By Sarah Anderson, Scott Klinger. Inst. for Policy Studies, Aug. 17, 2020. ~ The fox has entered the henhouse. -Edited:
In its 245 years, the USPS has persevered through rain, snow, heat, gloom of night & even a global pandemic to serve the American people. But now this vital public service is under attack from within. In 2 months, a new Postmaster General has dramatically slowed the mail by banning overtime pay, a hiring freeze, dismantling mail sorting machines, removing mailboxes, & other cuts. On Aug. 24, the House will grill Postmaster Gen. Louis DeJoy, Trump ally & Republican mega-donor, about whether these reckless actions are aimed at suppressing mail-in votes in the Nov. election, a legitimate fear, given Trumps war on vote by mail. The actions could also be aimed at another Trump goal: privatization.
In 2018, the OMB recommended selling off the public Postal Service to for-profit corporations. A 2019 Trump Task Force on the Postal Service, headed by Treasury head Mnuchin, called for privatization of wide swaths of the public agency.
Given the overwhelming public support for the Postal Service, the U.S. government is unlikely to be able to get away with selling it off through public stock offerings as some other nations have done. Private corporations are unlikely to be interested in buying USPS lock, stock, & barrel anyway. Private carriers UPS & Fedex would be most interested in acquiring more of the public agencys lucrative & growing package business. They dont need legislative or executive action. They just need USPS to drive away their own customers by slowing deliveries & jacking up rates.
Successful in slowing deliveries, USPS officials recently imposed an increase in commercial package shipping costs from Oct. 18 - Dec. 27. While private carriers have instituted holiday surcharges for certain shipment classes for 2 weeks around Christmas, the USPS price increase would affect virtually all USPS package shipments & for 2 months.. USPS claims that by jacking up rates only on commercial customers, it is protecting the retail consumer during a vulnerable economic period. But anyone whos studied Business 101 knows that these costs will likely be passed on to customers. The hike in package delivery costs are an early Christmas gift to UPS & FedEx. Since the August 6 USPS decision to increase their rates, Fedex shares are up 20 % & UPS is up more than 10 %, compared to a less than 1 % increase in the S&P 500.
Likewise, DeJoys removal of high-volume mail sorting equipment in USPS facilities around the country could pave the way for privatizing this part of USPS. According to news reports, this equipment is not simply being pulled out & stored in warehouses its being dismantled. So what will happen when the pandemic ends, mail volumes rebound, & USPS needs additional sorting capacity? DeJoy could claim the most efficient solution is to turn to private sorting companies like Pitney Bowes to do the work, thus eliminating thousands of good public sector post office jobs...
More, https://ips-dc.org/are-usps-cuts-motivated-by-voter-suppression-or-privatization-or-both/
- Originally in Inequality.org
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)A twofer.
Ty for posting this!
mitch96
(13,924 posts)fully solvent made it an eye for corporate predators. Take over the company, bust it up and steal the money. YMMV
m
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Absolutely!
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)No doubt!
SharonAnn
(13,778 posts)Private businesses want the assets and the revenue.
They'll do the typical things.
1. Lay off employees
2. Hire temps at lower wages and no benefits
3. Raise prices
4. Reduce service coverage
5. PAY MANAGEMENT BIG SALARIES AND BONUSES!
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)It's the repuke way!
SharonAnn
(13,778 posts)Its what the renter types want. Ongoing business that spins off $ in perpetuity. Buy assets for pennies on the dollar. They can fire people, bust the union, hire cheap contract workers, reduce service and raise prices. And no one could stop them because theyre a monopoly.
ms liberty
(8,593 posts)I was waiting for their name to come up. Bloodsucking leeches who screw their customers, their employees and the USPS.
rampartc
(5,433 posts)the post office owns lots of prime urban real estate to the well positioned bidder.
Freddie
(9,273 posts)Voter suppression now, privatization later.
They cant wait to turn those good USPS jobs into McJobs and turn the $ saved into shareholders dividends. Nothing Republicans love more than feeding from the taxpayer trough. See also: private prisons, charter schools.
appalachiablue
(41,169 posts)ample retirement funds and 'turn good USPS jobs into McJobs that drive shareholder $."
~ Hogs feeding at the public trough, same with private prisons, charter schools. ~
Blow after blow after blow hollowing out this once great country...
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Well said.
appalachiablue
(41,169 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)And the only "option" is to continue to allow tgem to rape our country.
SharonAnn
(13,778 posts)"Voila!" Perpetual revenue with little work.
donkeypoofed
(2,187 posts)DJT, Fox News, April 2020"
Just this reason.
appalachiablue
(41,169 posts)Voltaire2
(13,123 posts)They hate it. 200,000 union members. A public service that everyone knows and loves and depends on.
appalachiablue
(41,169 posts)with pensions, home ownership and a secure path to the middle class. That's all over now according to the Predators.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Yet he chose to install DeJoy and do it now. There is only one reason why he did it and that is to try to suppress mail voting.
appalachiablue
(41,169 posts)malthaussen
(17,216 posts)The GOP politicians long to privatize the USPS. They've be carrying on a campaign to cripple it for a long time. The voter suppression is just icing on the cake, but may also have accelerated the program of destruction.
-- Mal
The Daily Irishman
(75 posts)Matthew Chapman, Salon, yesterday:
Faced with nationwide outrage and lawsuits from nearly two dozen states, President Donald Trump's new postmaster general Louis DeJoy announced on Tuesday that he would be suspending several controversial new policy changes at the Postal Service that critics suspect are a deliberate effort to slow down the mail ahead of elections that will rely heavily on mail-in ballots.
But according to CNN, postal union leaders do not take DeJoy at his word that everything is fixed.
"Miriam Bell, general president of a local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union in North Carolina, said seven sorting machines at a Charlotte postal facility have been either separated out, dismantled or entirely removed in recent weeks," reported Curt Devine and Paul Murphy. "Asked if she expects them to return, Bell said, 'We truthfully do not know,' adding, 'it is highly unlikely they will be put back in place.'"
Furthermore, continued the report, "Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan, had been removed from service in recent weeks, and despite DeJoy's announcement, he said he has heard from postal management that the machines are not supposed to be put back to work."
https://www.salon.com/2020/08/19/postal-union-officials-doubt-louis-dejoy-will-reverse-changes-that-led-to-mail-slowdown-report_partner/
And I doubt it even more, as I stated in my own thread in GD.