Speech from LUEL National Exec Member, and Heartland Chapter Chair M. Drezner at the NALC “Fight Like Hell” Rally Against Privatization of the USPS in Sioux Falls, SD on March 23, 2025.
Good afternoon brothers and sisters, I’m M. Drezner and I am a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). I want to thank the hard working members of the National Association of Letter Carriers for putting this on not only in Sioux Falls, but around the country. This is not the first time the postal service has come under attack, as brother Justin summed up at the beginning of the event. The working class of this country has sacrificed its blood to establish many standards we enjoy today and have had to fight and claw protections away from the ruling class so that we might all have a better standard of living. But those protections, if not safeguarded with the constant strengthening of a class-oriented trade union movement, are always subject to rollbacks and are always under threat from those with a voracious hunger to privatize and commodify every facet of our society.
A paper was published, or rather leaked, last month detailing Wells Fargo’s thesis for what privatizing our postal service would look like. In this document titled “USPS Privatization: A Framework” Wells Fargo lays out what it believes is a plan that would “enhance parcel profitability” (their words) and when I looked through all the sweeping changes they would make to our postal system, it was borderline horrific. One of the cornerstones of this document were the acquisition of real estate, selling all the land that the postal service occupies which they estimated to be in the realm of $85 billion. Not only that, but Wells Fargo also believes that USPS should raise its rates 30-140% citing that it would be good for FedEx and UPS. USPS has been a constant counterweight to the greed of FedEx and UPS by providing affordable shipping methods.
Another topic that Wells Fargo wants on the chopping block is pensions and what they described as “healthcare liabilities” (because heaven forbid workers use their healthcare that they pay for). Wells Fargo believes that these pensions should be instead offloaded to taxpayers to foot the bill, relieving the company of its obligation to their members and most likely moving to a 401K that is volatile and can make the ruling class even more money.
Currently, USPS provides what is called Universal Service Obligation or USO which requires mail to be delivered to all US address within six days. This ensures that citizens located in Alaska and Hawaii receive their mail in a timely manner. Under privatization, there would be no guarantee when a package would arrive to those states, or any state for that matter.
And rural Americans? It is noted that the rural community has a “strong affinity” for the postal service, but provides no recourse for them under privatization. So essentially, we are leaving rural Americans disconnected from their family and friends, kicking them to the curb because they’re not “profitable”.
The prevailing belief throughout this entire plan is that the ruling class, not content with its vast levels of wealth, wants to continue stripping away all services to Americans at the whims of ever increasing levels of profit. National programs that are privatized often experience poorer service at massively increased rates and that is the threat we are faced with today.
But while the situation may be dark and the road ahead uncertain, the undeniable truth is that this country runs every day because of the working class. Our brothers and sisters in the NALC work long days to ensure the postal service runs and that Americans receive their mail. One of the working class’ greatest tools is solidarity and it’s what has brought all of us here today, because an injury to one is an injury to all. In the face of an attack, the rank-and-file movement is ultimately what can prevent a disaster from taking place. Any union is only as strong as its rank and file.
As Harry Bridges, former President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said, “the most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity”. Brothers and sisters in the NALC, the class-oriented trade union movement is with you on this day and we join you in the struggle against privatization of USPS. Solidarity to the working class!
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