Members of the West Virginia Postal Workers Union will rally to protest Postmaster General Dejoy’s “Delivering for America.” To make the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) more efficient, in some cases by cutting workers, the plan does not go far enough in shrinking a bloated operation created for the 20th century. It has no position in today’s world of modern communication. Postal workers need to understand that, for the organization to survive, many more must lose their jobs. (These industries are laying off the most workers.)
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The union argues that cuts at USPS retail locations have undermined service. In reality, USPS should have many fewer locations. Today, it has an absurd count of 31,132. Some of these serve towns with only a few thousand residents. People can leave outbound mail in their postboxes and eliminate the need to travel to a post office. This would also cut the need for people to wait for postal services.
Another method for cutting postal workers is to cut deliveries to three days a week. Because of email and the ability to attach files, most physical mail is unnecessary. Many Americans receive their bills via email and pay them online. The population should be encouraged to do this to cut USPS costs.
One effect of overstaffing is the need for a large fleet of trucks. These are significant sources of air pollution. Part of the USPS fleet will be transitioned to electric vehicles. The plan simply takes one set of unnecessary trucks and exchanges it for another.
The USPS should deliver increasingly fewer packages. For years, privately operated FedEx and UPS have proven they are reasonable alternatives, which is another way to shrink the USPS.
Finally, unions have no place as representatives of postal workers. The union system only serves as a means to slow the evolution of the USPS and adds to inefficiencies.
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