Trump’s budget ‘another broadside attack’ on postal workers

In addition to major cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs, President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 takes aim at the U.S. Postal Service.

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), says the budget proposal takes up the wrong-headed recommendations of the 2018 White House Task Force on the U.S. Postal System.

“The president’s budget is another broadside attack by this White House on postal workers, our union and our customers’ well-deserved right to a public Postal Service that meets their needs. It doubles down on the Task Force proposals which would deteriorate the mail, lead to the loss of thousands of decent jobs and set the Post Office up to be sold off to the highest bidder.”

USPS FAIRNESS ACT
The House of Representatives passed the USPS Fairness Act, on Feb. 5, with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill would repeal the prefunding mandate which led to the manufactured financial crisis in the Postal Service. Nonetheless, the White House budget calls on USPS to resume prefunding payments, no matter their impact on postal finances.

“Simply put, this is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of dedicated and hardworking postal workers who make the Postal Service the most efficient post in the world and this country’s most trusted institution,” continued Dimondstein. “Our collective struggle to defend the public Postal Service and our jobs must continue, from the workroom floor to the streets, from the ballot box to Congress and the White House.”

SLASHING SAFETY NET
The budget also proposes slashing social safety net programs, eliminating or reducing cost-of-living increases, increasing employee retirement contributions, and changing the way retirement is calculated.