had signed onto<\/a>\u00a0resolutions opposing postal privatization.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s clear that the Task Force was eager to push as hard as possible on privatization. In June, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a member of the task force, released a separate report that explicitly called for the privatization of the USPS. It\u2019s plain that the hard work of public postal advocates paid off, as the Task Force had to slow walk on the OMB\u2019s proposals.<\/p>\n
But are we out of the woods in the fight to save our public Postal Service? Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s in the Report? The Privatization Two-Step<\/h3>\n
The task force report is full of recommendations that would radically transform the public nature of the country\u2019s postal service. First are recommendations that the Postal Service increase their use of third-party processing and transportation partnerships. This would drive even more\u00a0traditional postal work into the hands of low-paid private contractors.<\/p>\n
The report even suggests doing away with the mailbox \u2018monopoly,\u2019 by selling franchise rights to private firms to be able to access the mailbox. While the report dresses this up as an opportunity for USPS to generate additional revenue, it doesn\u2019t address the loss of public trust this would lead to. Especially during the e-commerce revolution, the public relies on the fact that only a trusted postal employee will have access to their mailbox.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most dramatic proposal in the Task Force recommendations is the suggestion that various postal products be classified as \u201cessential\u201d or \u201cnon-essential\u201d based on their value to the public, and whether private sector companies could provide a similar service. That\u2019s a slippery slope that could quickly lead to drastically higher prices for lots of mail that customers \u2013 both businesses and individuals \u2013 would rightly think of as \u201cessential.\u201d It could even lead to the conclusion that, given the nature of communications technology and an already competitive package delivery market, there\u2019s no longer a need for a public, universal service provider at all.<\/p>\n
So, while the Task Force recommendations stopped short of calling for the immediate sale of the Postal Service, it\u2019s clear that the work of those in A Grand Alliance and other allies is far from over. The OMB report in the summer made clear the administration\u2019s goal was to pursue \u201cthe implementation of significant reforms prior to sale to show a possible path to profitability.\u201d As we head into the new year, advocates for a public Postal Service will have to remain vigilant to ensure that the task force\u2019s plans to break up, slow down and fatten up the Postal Service are dead on arrival. We\u2019ll redouble our efforts to invest in our national treasure and ensure USPS is able to deliver the affordable, reliable and essential services the people of this country deserve.<\/p>\n
Source: Task Force: No Fire Sale, But Privatization Threat Looms | APWU<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-awaited report of President Trump\u2019s Task Force on the future of the Postal Service was released Dec. 4, months after its original August deadline. While the task force stopped short of proposing an immediate, full-scale fire sale of the Postal Service, it\u2019s no wonder the White House held the report until after the midterm elections \u2013 its recommendations would slow mail service, stop the Postal Service from innovating and would, indeed, privatize vast swaths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-grand-alliance","category-apwu-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3601,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions\/3601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}