USPS workers have banded together to protest President Donald Trump’s efforts to privatize the agency.
Employees warned that the proposed structural changes would change everything Americans expect from the agency.
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“The president mentioned some sort of a merger with a private sector. We are 100% opposed to any sort of privatization,” says Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).
The Mississippi resident came out to represent the number of postal workers from rural states who are concerned about the plans to privatize the agency, as reported by a local Mississippi news outlet, WLOX.
The Postal Service is a central part of the $1.58 trillion mailing industry that comprises over 7 million employees, according to the agency’s website.
All of these employees’ jobs could be at stake if the president moves to privatize the USPS.
Americans who have depended on receiving their mail Monday through Saturday might have to get used to a completely different system if Trump’s plan succeeds.
“They have lived their entire life getting mail delivered 6 days a week. If even a part of the postal service is privatized that is going to end,” Renfroe said.
The NALC currently oversees 200,000 letter carriers who deliver more than 370 million pieces of mail to roughly 169 million delivery points each day, according to its website.
The organization helps support the trillion-dollar mailing industry.
Antonia Shields, the president of Alabama’s NALC, emphasized the importance of the work that letter carriers provide.
“I don’t care where you at, where you live, we will deliver,” she told WLOX.
“We are a universal service; the cost is equal across the United States, it’s regulated. If they take it, and the billionaires get their hands on it, then we will have prices, and we won’t be able to deliver in our rural areas,” she added.
Shields represents the many postal workers who depend on their jobs to support their families and livelihoods.
If the agency is privatized, Americans wonder if they can trust a new service with sensitive information — a responsibility that USPS carriers have always shouldered.
“These are federal government employees. It means a lot to us. But when you go out there and get any Joe Blow off the street to deliver mail, now you’re jeopardizing the security of other people’s livelihoods, bank accounts, medicine,” Monica Walker, a NALC’s Region 8 Regional Administrative Assistant, told WLOX.
What to do when mail is missing
Step 1: Check the Current Status
Before you begin your search, if your package or mail has tracking, check USPS Tracking to see its current status.
Step 2: Complete a Help Request Form
Complete the USPS online help request form before you start a missing mail search. Please use a desktop computer to submit your form.
Your request will be forwarded to your local Post Office facility to help locate any missing items.
Step 3: Submit a Missing Mail Search Request
If after 7 business days from when you submitted your online help request form your mail or package hasn’t arrived, submit a Missing Mail search request with the following information:
- Sender mailing address
- Recipient mailing address
- Size and type of container or envelope you used
- Identifying information such as your USPS Tracking number(s), the mailing date from your mailing receipt, or Click-N-Ship label receipt
- Description of the contents such as what it is and the brand, model, color, or size, if applicable
- Pictures that could help us recognize your item
Step 4: Start your missing mail search
“We are still the number one trusted company, federal agency — we have been for years,” Walker added.
This comes as the Trump administration suggested even more changes to the USPS.
The Commerce Secretary suggested that postal workers should be tasked with collecting census data in the coming years.
For the 2030 Census, the administration has proposed that mail carriers go door-to-door to gather household data as temporary workers.
As the Trump administration works to control more and more independent agencies, many have brought up concerns about privacy and security.
Postal workers are trusted to securely transport mail that contains medical records, financial statements, and more.
