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Kitchen Table Kibitzing March 23, 2025 USPS [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-23
Postal Service
I worked for the postal service for 20 years, night shift in Santa Rosa, then day shift in Petaluma. My final four years were spent as a supervisor. Everybody did their job, and I always felt a certain pride in the organization. Every day we processed our share of the total: the USPS processes and delivers an average of 318 million mail pieces daily, including letters, packages, and other mail types. The actual error rate was a tiny fraction of that of other high-volume processors.
As a supervisor I had to field complaints from the public, such as “You lost my letter or my carrier was rude.” There were very few of these to deal with. Generally, the public has had a high opinion of the postal service.
The service is highly unionized, and employs a high proportion of veterans. I was a mail handler, and at one union meeting the boss asked “How many of you are vets” and we all raised our hands.
25 years ago we were hearing stories about privatization, a right wing fantasy, to somehow latch on to the high cash flow and direct it to private companies, and change the egalitarian promise of the same cost for all citizens no matter where they lived.
With the promotion of DeJoy to postmaster general we’ve seen the gradual decline in service and cost increases. We ourselves have experienced missing mail, even a certified check which was never found.
Now under trump/Musk, the privatization calls have increased. I have been promoting my personal theory, that they want to own the fabulous postal real estate in nearly every city, to sell it to their buddies for pennies on the dollar.
Today was a national day of protest by workers and the public to raise awareness about the potential. We attended the large protest in Santa Rosa a few hours ago, and the public driving by was massively supportive.
Are you supportive of a government-run postal service? What has been your experience in the past (3-cent stamps)? How about lately?
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that many who post in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table and hope to make some new friends as well.
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