The president of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) accused Congress and Wall Street Tuesday of manufacturing a financial crisis in order to privatize the post office.
“A congressionally manufactured financial crisis is being used to justify new assaults on postal jobs and on the 239-year old public Post Office” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement.
Dimondstein claims that the attacks are being orchestrated by “Congress, Wall Street and the Postmaster General himself” in order to legitimize calls for privatization.
In a call for action, Dimondstein states “To survive the onslaught, we must transform our union into a fighting, activist organization and we must build a Grand Alliance with the people of the country to defend our national treasure, the United States Postal Service.”
“The Stop Staples campaign is an excellent example of the APWU’s fighting capacity” Dimondstein explained using recent protest against the office supply store Staples as an example of a private institution that is in the process of taking on some of the post office’s duties.
“The Stop Staples campaign is an essential component of defending the public Postal Service and our good, living-wage jobs” Dimondstein continued.
In a rallying call, Dimondstein exclaimed “At every stage of the struggle, you have stepped up! Your terrific activism has put the Postal Service and Staples – along with every other retailer in this country – on notice: The U.S. Mail is not for Sale!”
In contrasts to this, James Gattuso, a senior research fellow in regulatory policy at the Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the recent financial crisis is “not manufactured at all.”
Gattuso describes this as an “orchestrated denial that the post office is in trouble”
“They’re losing revenue” adds Gattuso, explaining why the post office has been trying to become more privatized despite union objection. “They’re treating this the way any business would.”
4 comments