Now Is the Time to Hang Together

Now Is the Time to Hang Together
By Chuck Mulidore
NAPS Executive Vice President

As we watch a new round of attacks unfold in Congress on the earned benefits of postal and federal retirees, the loss of jobs in the federal government and, potentially, the dissolution of the USPS Board of Governors as a means to change the independent status of the Postal Service, I am reminded of remarks attributed to Ben Franklin, the first Postmaster General of the American colonies: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Franklin is reported to have said this after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Now, while I am, so far, not concerned about an actual hanging in these times, I see the spirit of Franklin’s comment as a call to arms. If all those affected by an action do not stand together, putting aside their differences, then all of them shall, most certainly, fall together.

That is where I see those of us in the federal-postal world today. As postal employees, we cannot stand back, believing that, at some point, actions taken against employees in the federal government will not apply to postal employees. Understand that what happens to federal employees today will come calling to postal employees tomorrow.

NAPS is a member of the Federal-Postal Coalition and has been a critical part of this group for many years. NAPS works with members in this community to protect the rights and earned benefits of all federal and postal employees. Furthermore, at this critical time, we must gather all postal groups, unions and management associations under one umbrella, setting aside our differences as this time of crisis unfolds.

President Trump has called for the Postal Service to be “merged” into the Commerce Department as a method to reduce the significant losses incurred by the Postal Service under the “Delivering for America” (DFA) plan outlined several years ago by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. While the Postal Service has faced significant problems during DeJoy’s tenure, placing the agency’s 640,000 employees under a federal government department that currently employs just over 48,000 employees would lead to a catastrophic decline in service, oversight and sustainability, possibly placing the Postal Service on the path to privatization.

As postal employees and retirees, we know the Postal Service is not a business; it is a service. The USPS universal service obligation (USO) is to provide affordable, dependable and efficient mail services to all Americans. The USO is outlined in multiple statutes.

This allows all Americans to have access to postal services, no matter where they live. Privatization is not the way to save the Postal Service. Rather, it is the way to destroy a right granted to Americans and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution that has successfully worked for 250 years!

NAPS will not stand by while the earned benefits of postal and federal employees are threatened by Congress—or the independent status of the U.S. Postal Service is challenged by any administration. We will do as we always have done—we will lead and fight.

That is who we are as NAPS members; that has been our history. Now is the time to stand tall, fight back and work with all those who share our common values. As Franklin warned, now is the time for all of us to hang together.