HUFFINGTON
07.22.12
GOINGPOSTAL
AP PHOTO/MORRY GASH
African-Americans. The agency
remains one of the largest employers of veterans in the nation,
with about one in four carriers
having served in the armed forces,
according to the National Association of Letter Carriers. About one
in five of the agency’s employees
are African-American.
Those two communities will
bear the brunt of looming job
cuts, says Phil Rubio, a former
letter carrier who wrote a book,
“There’s Always Work at the Post
Office,” about African-Americans
and the postal service.
“It’s shrinking,” says Rubio.
“The post office was one place
where African-Americans could
find jobs in the 60s and 70s and
after that. I’m not African-American, but like them the post office
was an avenue to the middle-class
for me. We purchased our own
home, we put our kids through
college. Removing that I think is
bad for the country in general.
Historically, it has been such a
rich institution.”
A PERSONAL AFFRONT
Postal unions have been pushing
back against the most austere proposals. Unfortunately for them,
today’s political atmosphere lends
itself to the kind of job cuts and
concessions that could fundamentally alter the agency.
GOP governors across the country have blamed