Letter carriers union to rally in Newark to protest potential cuts and privatization
Shane Brennan- Delaware mail carriers are rallying against potential privatization and employee cuts to the USPS.
- The USPS has experienced financial troubles, reporting a $9.5 billion loss in fiscal year 2024.
- The National Association of Letter Carriers argues that privatization would harm rural communities that rely on the USPS for essential deliveries.
Delaware's mail carriers are using their day off to rally against potential changes to one of the country's oldest institutions, the U.S. Postal Service.
Newark's post office near the city's main drag will feature hundreds of mail carriers rallying against potential privatization and employee cuts.
A letter from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to congressional leaders on March 13 said 10,000 workers would be cut from the service through a voluntary early retirement program and that he has asked the General Services Administration and controversial Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to streamline the USPS' retirement programs and evaluate "mismanagement" of worker's compensation, unfunded service mandates and "burdensome" regulations. A follow-up letter on March 17 added counterfeit postage and retail lease renewals to the list of grievances.
The letter also highlights growth in revenues and DeJoy's belief that the Postal Service can emerge from financial woes. The USPS is self-funded through sales of stamps, boxes and delivery services and operates as an independent agency of the executive branch. It is enshrined in Article I of the Constitution and overseen by a board of governors. The service has experienced money trouble for years now. In fiscal year 2024, it reported a $9.5 billion loss.
Donald Trump said at a news conference in December 2024 that privatizing the service is not the "worst idea I've ever heard." The Washington Post reported in February that President Trump is looking to bring the Postal Service's governance under the control of the Department of Commerce and its secretary, bringing it under Trump's oversight.
Shawn Colleran is the president of the Southern Delaware branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, a union representing mail carriers in the USPS. Currently, the NALC and USPS are in arbitration over their most recent collective bargaining agreement. But the union is focusing on this more existential threat for both their paychecks and for delivery.
"In the state of Delaware, we have around 1000 letter carriers," he said. "We're all federal employees, and unfortunately, with the current administration there, they're aiming to privatize us, which not only would take away our pay, our benefits, but also would pretty much end delivery for rural America."
Colleran said the goal of the USPS is not to make a profit, but rather to maintain consistent delivery around the country. In rural parts of Kent and Sussex counties, deliveries of medicines and voting ballots are in trouble if privatized.
In 2018, the first Trump administration commissioned a task force at the Department of the Treasury to evaluate the operations of the USPS. The following report found any policy changes in the USPS should not hurt rural communities, for which the report said the USPS is both a critical service and employer. Without daily deliveries to every home, people would have to drive long distances for essentials, Colleran said.
"If we were broken up, western Sussex County and western Kent County simply would not get service," Colleran said.
The voluntary early retirement clause was not offered to carriers, according to David Craig, vice president of the NALC Newark branch, but he and other union members are concerned about job security. The post office can lay off anyone who has worked there less than six years, which makes up 65% of the Newark office. Craig said he has been there for 39 years and is lucky to be close to retirement.
"Somebody that can be pretty well established, have been around for a couple years and have benefits and everything could actually be laid off," he said.
The rally against potential privatization is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 23, at the Newark Post Office at 401 Ogletown Road.