Demonstration and March Against Post Office Closings

Demonstration and March Against Post Office Closings
Wednesday, June 27, 4 PM
Gather at New Federal Building, 7th St at Mission, SF
(Civic Center BART/Metro)
March to Post Office slated to close.

This resolution by the Letter Carriers tells the story:

Whereas, in view of the devastating attacks on the Postal Service that have been announced by the Postmaster General – which threaten to eliminate 220,000 living-wage postal jobs from our communities …. close 250 mail processing centers and 3,700 post offices, mostly in poor and rural areas …. degrade service standards and delay the mail by a minimum of 1 to 3 days …. eliminate 6-day delivery and curtail door-to-door delivery of the mail, among many other proposed cutbacks – altogether threatening the very survival of the people’s Post Office which for over 200 years has provided universal mail service at uniform rates to every part of the United States, and has the support of the great majority of our people; and

Whereas, the Post Office receives no federal tax money. Its total income is derived from the labor and skill of hundreds of thousands of postal workers who serve millions of customers daily [and also maintain the nation’s largest fleet of trucks]. The Post Office is a strategic “multiplier industry” in transportation and communications, with up to 8 million workers in related industries, depending directly or indirectly on the USPS for their livelihoods; and

Whereas, the postal system continues to thrive despite competition from the internet, and despite the severe economic downturn. Postal revenues just about matched expenses over the last four years – until they slapped the USPS with an unprecedented $5.5 Billion a year charge to pre-fund retiree health benefits, and drained away an additional $50-70 Billion by over-funding postal pensions (according to government reports). This is a manufactured crisis, providing PMG Donahoe and the richest 1% with their phony arguments that the postal system is broke – and preparing the way for an attempt to sabotage, dismantle and privatize this trillion dollar industry and run it for private profit; and

Whereas, the postal system belongs to the people. To safeguard our heritage, and ensure that the interests of the people are being protected, the Post Office needs to be publicly owned and run in the public interest.

Therefore be it resolved, that the National Association of Letter Carriers, working together with the other postal unions, encourage the formation, in cities and towns throughout the country, of Community/Labor Coalitions to Save Postal Jobs and Services – to build a powerful nationwide movement to defeat privatization, maintain living-wage jobs, expand postal services, and save the Post Office as a public entity operating in the public interest.

Resolution adopted 5/2/12 by unanimous vote of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 214, meeting in San Francisco, California. It will be submitted to the NALC National Convention, which will be held July 23-27, 2012 in Minneapolis.