Unions don’t just advocate for fair compensation and job security for their members, they also advocate for consumers by demanding continued affordable and reliable provision of diverse goods and services. An excellent example is the battle the American Postal Workers Union and it’s allies have been waging to preserve and strengthen our Postal Service. Nobody knows better than rural folks how essential good postal service is, and we’re suffering due to continued cutbacks and degrading of our Postal Service.
I’m the volunteer water system operator for our small town, and every 3 months I have to take a water sample and get it to the testing lab 90 miles away within 30 hours. That used to be simple, get the sample to the nearest Post Office by 5 pm and it’d be delivered to the lab next morning for the price of first class mail. After over a decade of Postal Service service cutbacks we have to get the sample to our local Post Office by noon, pay top rate for “overnight” delivery, and it took two days to get delivered late anyway. The lab then rejects the stale sample, and we have to repeat the process all over again. And all over rural america, small town volunteers and employees are driving hundreds of miles to deliver water samples because the Postal Service can’t deliver on time anymore and UPS and FedEx don’t wanna be bothered.
Now the republican candidates don’t seem to be bothered by this crisis in municipal budgets and possible public health crisis too; They think it’s a great excuse to discontinue “intrusive” water testing, the citizens of Flint be damned. Besides, the UPS and FedEx lobbyists that funnel $$$ to their campaigns would just as soon have the Postal Service gone so they can jack up rates even higher- A lot of rural areas are already suffering under UPS and FedEx rural surcharges and only 2 or 3 day a week delivery. Hillary damn well should give a darn, but seems strangely quiet while our Postal Service is being destroyed. But Bernie’s sure as heck speaking up, he’s shouting from the rooftops that the closing of Post Offices and mail processing plants must stop. Further, Bernie demands that service be returned to pre-cutback standards with overnight regional delivery of first class mail the norm again. That’s just the start of Bernie’s big plans for the Postal Service- Bernie wants the Postal Service to offer banking services to everyone, just as the postal services of several countries do. And Bernie don’t just talk- he holds citizen forums to challenge postal closings, meets regularly with postal workers, and thinks nothing of authoring and passing resolutions and laws to prevent postal cutbacks. Meanwhile, Hillary is, again, MIA…
That’s why the several hundred thousand member American Postal Workers Union and this retired rural member are backin’ Bernie Sanders for president!