HUFFINGTON
07.22.12
GOINGPOSTAL
of collective bargaining in Wisconsin. He seems genuinely hurt by it.
“We negotiated a contract
with the postal service,” he says.
“That’s what our bargain is. And
now someone wants to come and
take away our bargain.
“I take it as a personal affront,”
he added. “I’m not going after
people in the private sector. Make
as much money as you want to
make...I don’t think they understand what unions have done. I
really don’t think they do. All the
things they have now — five-day
weeks, eight-hour workdays, overtime, child labor laws. That’s something organized labor fought for.”
Yet even Williams recognizes
the problem posed by the decline
in first-class mail, which isn’t an
abstraction when you handle letters for a living. “You can see it,”
he says of the falling volume.
THE LAST MILE
If the postal service cuts back or
disappears altogether, there are
two big competitors seemingly
waiting in the wings. As Rep. John
Mica (R-Fla.), who pushed a plan
to privatize Amtrak service, said
at a hearing last year: “The postal
service is becoming a dinosaur
and will soon be extinct...I usually
“I THINK WE ARE
REALLY IN DANGER
OF LOSING
WHAT I WOULD
CALL IMPORTANT
CITIZENSHIP
VALUES.”
use FedEx or UPS.”
Those shipping giants may
have a combined U.S. workforce
comparable to that of the U.S.
Postal Service, but they probably wouldn’t fill the void left by
the agency. It’s doubtful that UPS
and FedEx would be interested in
delivering letters, postcards and
bills. With web-centric people
winnowing down their mail piles,
the profits to be made on firstclass mail are dwindling.
Besides, they don’t have the
universal network that the postal service has in place, and it
wouldn’t make sense for them
to try to start going door to door
making nickel-and-dime deliveries. Unlike the postal service, the
private shipping companies have
built networks designed for more
specialized, high-dollar shipping,
not first-class mail.