The National Association of Letter Carriers publicly endorsed Joe Biden on Friday, warning that “the very survival” of the U.S. Postal Service is at stake. The union has long criticized Donald Trump and his administration for the way they have handled funding related to the post office.
In the scorching statement, NALC president Fredric Rolando, said the following:
Vice President Biden is – was – and will continue to be – a fierce ally and defender of the United States Postal Service (USPS), letter carriers, and our fellow postal brothers and sisters. NALC’s endorsement and our support come down to Joe’s steadfast support of us and his unwavering dedication to improving the lives of all working people throughout this great nation.
Since coming to the Senate in 2016, Senator Kamala Harris has put letter carriers and working families first. In her role on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, she has stanchly defended maintaining a healthy, financially stable Postal Service and has consistently acted to ensure that those who are nominated to run the Postal Service are held to the highest standard.
Together, Biden and Harris fully exhibit the experience, dedication, thoughtfulness and steady hands that will work to ensure that letter carriers and working families are put first.
The Executive Council’s decision to endorse the Biden/Harris ticket was based on the input of our membership through polling, surveys, responses to our candidate questionnaire, and a discussion with the Vice President. The decision is also partly informed by what we have seen from the current administration with regards to the Postal Service. In 2018, legislative recommendations from the White House Postal Task Force report called for the revocation of collective bargaining rights by America’s postal unions, massive cuts to services, and the potential privatization of the agency. Since that time, we have continued to see the administration take steps outside of the public eye to undermine the Postal Service and letter carriers.
And now, our country struggles to withstand the public health and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 virus. This pandemic threatens the very survival of USPS. Yet, while postal employees are on the front lines providing essential services to the public every day, the current administration refuses to provide the necessary financial relief that would strengthen the agency during this pandemic.
The Postal Service must not be allowed to fail. We must do everything we can to help the Postal Service thrive, not only for the men and women of the Postal Service but for the communities and businesses that we serve during this critical time. For those reasons, NALC is proud to stand with Vice President Biden and Senator Harris in November and beyond.
While the pandemic has ravaged the country, leading to an increased reliance in prescriptions by mail and expected exponential growth in mail in ballot requests, the White House installed a Trump friendly Postmaster, Louis DeJoy. DeJoy has been kneecapping the Post Office through cutting hours, eliminating overtime (when demand is highest!), removing sorting machines and physical removal of blue post office boxes scattered all across America. Oh, and Trump and the GOP are refusing to infuse to USPS with much needed cash.
On Thursday, Donald Trump told Fox Business Network: “They want $25 billion for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.” He has literally tied funding the USPS to him losing the election and will stop at nothing to interfere and put up blockades to stop Americans from voting.
Trump’s campaign had no comment on the endorsement. Shocking. They do not care.
