#Louis DeJoy

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Annie Norman

The public learned last fall of one particularly controversial element of United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year plan for the U.S. Postal Service that would be rolling out soon. Essentially, the function of sorting and delivering mail would be consolidated into regional centers, leaving empty former sorting space in the back of post offices. No layoffs were announced.

At first glance, this sounds innocuous, but seasoned postal observers suspect that with less activity happening at smaller or rural post offices, they become vulnerable to a reduction in hours or closure. This leads to the kind of job losses that initially present as don’t worry, we’ll relocate you to the regional center but are experienced by postal workers as if I don’t commute two hours there and back each day or more, I lose my job.

In response, The Save the Post Office Coalition, which I coordinate, wrote to the Secretary of the USPS Board of Governors to ensure the board was made aware of emails from 160,000 postal customers across the country urging them to stop the disastrous elements of DeJoy’s plan before it’s too late.

Among the several thousands of personalized messages, we highlighted a handful in our note:

“The USPS provides a service to the public. It was never intended to be a profit-making business. I’m disappointed & ashamed at where politics seem to be taking us.”

— David B. (veteran) Seattle, Washington.

“As a former United States Postal Service employee and as someone who regularly uses the [USPS], I ask you to do something about DeJoy, who continues to degrade everything about the postal service — especially the service part of it.”

— Kristin F. in Cottonwood, Indiana.

“It is important for seniors like me to be able to count on a dependable means of getting medications without having a further drain on our resources.”

— Peter L. in Los Angeles, California.

“I believe that a well supported and functioning post office is a hallmark of a healthy, advanced nation. Stop DeJoy’s undemocratic plan now before it’s too late.”

— Janet M. in Downers Grove, Illinois.

“We senior citizens depend on USPS. Please help keep it viable.”

—Joanne L. in Akron, Ohio.

“Our postal service should be about serving us rather than serving businesses that give it money.”

— Douglas L. in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

We have yet to hear a response or acknowledgement that the messages from the public were received, and DeJoy continues to make it clear that he doesn’t want anyone asking questions about his 10-year plan.

On the same day that USPS leadership received our coalition’s messages, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued a public inquiry order to DeJoy asking that USPS provide details on the sorting and delivery changes under his plan. In the order, the Commission said it “notes that stakeholders have expressed concerns regarding a lack of a forum to explore the impacts of these proposed changes.”

DeJoy responded with an objection to the Commission’s inquiry. On May 17, DeJoy delivered congressional testimony for the first time in nearly two years at a hearing of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations. Rep. Summer Lee asked him why USPS is objecting. In his response, DeJoy was openly hostile toward the postal regulator, accusing them of actively participating “in the destruction of [USPS].”

Just last month, DeJoy sat down with the press for a 90-minute interview where he once again doubled down with an adversarial attitude toward postal regulators who seek details for the public on his 10-year plan, calling the Commission’s inquiry “nonsense,” saying, “We don’t need to be babysat.”

On May 22, DeJoy delivered the keynote address at the 2023 National Postal Forum where he spoke at length touting his efforts to implement “dramatic changes” and increase the pace of his 10-year plan. The postmaster general told the audience that “dramatic changes must be done at a pace, and with a tenacity that is rarely seen.” However, these changes are a mystery to many, and for a public institution, this mystery is dangerous.

If the past is any guide, the effects of potential post office closings and reduced hours will be devastating, particularly to rural and Indigenous communities. The Save the Post Office Coalition organized a petition to the Postal Regulatory Commission and the USPS Office of Inspector General urging them to stop DeJoy’s “dramatic changes” and demand public input, and so far has received over 131,000 signatures from the public who regularly use the postal service.

The bottom line is that the public has a right to more transparency and input in the decision-making process at a public institution. This requires engagement with said public — which DeJoy is actively resisting. When you put a rich, white, private-sector executive who isn’t used to public accountability and cooperation in charge of a treasured public institution, such a clash might be inevitable. It’s plain DeJoy doesn’t have the temperament for public service.

Communities across the nation want dramatic change at the post office too, but that dramatic change is not to be secretive or a surprise; it must be a shift toward protecting and expanding the public footprint and services available at the post office to meet new needs and change with the times. The People’s Postal Agenda outlines a framework for an expanded USPS that includes things like postal banking, expanded nonbank financial services like bill payment and ATMs, WiFi in parking lots, and public electric vehicle charging.

We still remember former President Donald Trump’s plan to privatize the post office, right before he put his thumb on the scale to have his donor DeJoy appointed as postmaster general. We also remember DeJoy’s role in sowing public fear and uncertainty in the vote-by-mail process by slowing down the mail and then sending out mailers to voters that meeting their state’s deadline would not ensure their vote would arrive in time to be counted, causing him to be sued by the NAACP and Public Citizen, as well as secretaries of state.

There is nothing to suggest that DeJoy has abandoned the privatization vision of the people who got him the job. So it’s our job as citizens to make absolutely sure any upcoming “dramatic changes” to the post office don’t shrink and privatize the institution but protect and expand it for generations to come.

#us politics #news #truthout #2023 #republicans #donald trump #conservatives #louis dejoy #Annie Norman #op eds #united states postal service #Save the Post Office Coalition #USPS Board of Governors #Postal Regulatory Commission #House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations #us house of representatives #Rep. Summer Lee #2023 National Postal Forum #People’s Postal Agenda #vote by mail #mail in ballots #mail in voting

[kp777]

By Vishal Shankar, Revolving Door Project

Common Dreams

Nov. 18, 2023

President Biden has utterly failed to hold DeJoy to account for his internal attack on the US Postal Service.

In a time of historic distrust in government, the United States Postal Service has accomplished something extraordinary: it remains a universally beloved federal agency. Second only to the Parks Service in public favorability (a jaw-dropping 77% approval rating, per Gallup), USPS is arguably also the most frequently-interacted-with component of the federal government: packages and letters are delivered to Americans’ mailboxes six days per week. But these warm feelings – already under threat by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s continued destructive leadership – could quickly chill if the Postal Board of Governors has its way.

At least four times per year, the Board (the governing body that votes on DeJoy’s agenda and has the sole power to fire him) holds an open session meeting, its sole formal contact with the public. In recent years, these meetings have concluded with a well-attended public comment period, where in-person and virtual attendees have excoriated DeJoy for embracing a privatization-friendly agenda. Just this year alone, public commenters at Board meetings have decried the mail slow downs and price hikes, demanded changes to DeJoy’s gas-guzzling and union-busting fleet plan, raised serious concerns about transparency of DeJoy’s facility consolidation plans, and pushed DeJoy to expand community services offered at the post office.

The future of the people’s most treasured public institution depends on public participation and feedback

But when the Postal Board of Governors met this week for their final open session of the year, there was one major difference from its previous quarterly meetings: virtual and remote public comments were, without explanation, banned. This abrupt new barrier to public accessibility led the number of public commenters – which in recent meetings has been a double-digit tally – to drop to 4. The decline in attendance was also likely compounded by an unexplained shift in the meeting time: whereas past meetings have been held at 4:00pm ET, Tuesday’s session was held at noon – the middle of the workday.

The Board’s decision to not allow virtual comments at the November 14th meeting follows another alarming recent attempt to suppress public input. At the August 2023 meeting, each public commenter was allotted only 25 seconds to speak, in sharp contrast to the typical 3 minute time limit. And past meetings were not beacons of accountability, either. The Postal Governors never responded to any comments raised by the public, and the comment period itself was always excluded from the official publicly available USPS recording of the formal session.

But next year, the Postal Board’s accountability problem will get even worse. During Tuesday’s meeting, Postal Board Deputy Secretary Lucy Trout explained, starting next year, the Postal Board will only hear public comments once per year in November. In other words, though the next three Postal Board meetings (February, May, and August 2024) are ostensibly “public sessions,” members of the public will have no opportunity to inform the Postal Board about their concerns until a year from now.

And it’s not as if postal workers, customers, and public advocates don’t have anything pressing to alert the Board about. On the contrary, DeJoy has continued to advance a destructive agenda that includes:

Five successive postage rate increases, which have risked driving away business and failed to improve USPS financial standing, despite DeJoy’s promises.

A 10-year stealth privatization plan that is being advanced with zero opportunities for public input and would increase delivery times, slash 50,000 jobs through attrition, and cut operations at more than 200 post offices and sorting facilities, which could devastate rural and Indigenous communities.

A next-gen postal fleet contract with Oshkosh Defense that is nearly 40% gas-guzzler and 100% built with non-union scab labor. UAW workers from Oshkosh have regularly attended postal board meetings (including Tuesday’s) to call for an investigation into the company’s union avoidance scheme and for the Board to rebid a new, union-built contract.

Failure to protect USPS staff from a dangerous summer heatwave that killed one postal worker, even after members of Congress urged improvements to the USPS heat safety protection plan and letter carriers alleged their managers were routinely falsifying safety documents.

Refusal to support alternative revenue sources that could strengthen USPS, such as postal banking, grocery delivery, or electric vehicle charging stations.

President Biden has utterly failed to hold DeJoy to account for any of this, instead inviting him to White House stamp ceremonies and staying silent as the Postmaster General laughably reinvents himself as a “Biden ally” to credulous reporters. This is particularly egregious given the President’s power to nominate members of the Postal Board of Governors:

Biden has inexplicably failed to name replacements for two Trump-appointed Governors – including DeJoy-supporting Democrat Lee Moak – whose terms expired last December. This has allowed Moak and his Republican colleague William Zollars to stay on the board for nearly a full year (their holdover terms will expire on December 8, 2023) and continue occupying seats that Biden has been statutorily allowed to fill.

The Save The Post Office coalition has endorsed former Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and postal expert Sarah Anderson – two strong critics of DeJoy’s leadership with decades of actual postal experience and policy expertise – for these positions. Biden has yet to indicate he will nominate anyone to these vacancies.

Though Biden has already nominated five of the Board’s nine governors (on paper, enough to fire DeJoy), at least two of his picks have been DeJoy backers: Democratic ex-GSA head Dan Tangherlini (who approved Trump’s lease of D.C.’s Old Post Office Building) and Republican Derek Kan (a former Mitch McConnell/Elaine Chao advisor). As I’ve written before, Biden’s choice to nominate Tangherlini and Kan (instead of two anti-Dejoy reformers) squandered a key opportunity to finally give the Board a pro-reform, anti-DeJoy majority.

The Postal Board’s restrictions on public comment are unacceptable. They must reverse course by allowing both in-person AND virtual public comments at ALL open sessions next year, and take further steps to improve accountability by responding to public comments and posting recorded comment sessions to the USPS website. Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration must publicly call out this shameful barrier to transparent government and fast-track filling the Moak and Zollars Postal Board seats with anti-DeJoy, pro-accountability reformers.

The future of the people’s most treasured public institution depends on public participation and feedback–that’s how public service works.

#usps #joe biden #louis dejoy #u.s. postal board

[macmanx]

Under Trump-holdover Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s failing leadership, Americans have seen slower mail deliveries and increased costs. There have been five rate increases since 2020. Additionally, slashing U.S. Postal Service jobs, coupled with closing and consolidating mail centers, continues to delay the mail. These harms to the USPS and the American people were all conducted under DeJoy’s disastrous 10-year plan. What’s more, it’s an election year, and DeJoy has a history of obstructing voting by mail. Right now, President Biden can nominate two new public servants to open seats on the Board who will stand up to DeJoy’s destructive leadership and advocate strongly for expanding USPS services. Over 80 U.S. Congresspeople, including members of the committee overseeing the Postal Service, are urging him to do just that and finally oust DeJoy. So do it, please!

#usps #louis dejoy #usa #resistbot #take action

[odinsblog]

I cannot fucking believe that Susan Sarandon hasn’t fired Louis DeJoy yet!!? WTF is she waiting on??

#politics #louis dejoy #usps #susan sarandon #joe biden

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

#louis dejoy #seditious domestic terrorism #tre45on

[aunti-christ-ine]

#louis dejoy #usps

[dadsinsuits]

Louis DeJoy

#suitdaddy #suiteddaddy #suit and tie #suited daddy #men in suits #daddy #suited grandpa #suitfetish #suitedman #suit daddy #suited men #suited man #buisness suit #suitedmen #americans #republicans #buisnessman #postmaster general #trump administration #Louis DeJoy

[jensorensen]

Mail Fail

For more tales of postal dysfunction, I recommend this article in the Colorado Sun, which describes a breakdown of the system in several small towns around the Rockies. Part of the problem is high housing costs leading to a worker shortage, as we are seeing in other industries. But a huge factor is the "Amazon effect" -- of post offices being absolutely overwhelmed with packages they are forced to deliver the last mile. Things have gotten so bad in Crested Butte that the town is looking into taking legal action to stop the post office from prioritizing Amazon over regular mail.

Help keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

#usps #post office #Postal Service #louis dejoy #cartoon

[tomorrowusa]

If Republicans issued their own postage stamps, they might look like the designs above.

IMHO, the one of Phyllis Schlafly looks way too flattering. But the one of Trump is about right.

We are also reminded that George W. Bush must be one of the luckiest people in the United States. Even though he started two interminable wars, was responsible for two recessions (including the Great Recession), and gave two rounds of tax breaks to the filthy rich which exploded the deficit, Bush will only be remembered as the second worst president of the 21st century thanks to Donald Trump.  

#republicans #postage stamps #fascists #george w. bush #phyllis schlafly #mitch mcconnell #republican supreme court #louis dejoy #donald trump #brian mcfadden

[nodynasty4us]

#postal service #louis dejoy

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed into law this week, includes a windfall for the United States Postal Service: $1.29 billion for the purchase of zero-emission delivery trucks, plus $1.71 billion for accompanying infrastructure, like charging ports, to support those vehicles.

Now, the question becomes: Will the USPS move forward with already announced plans to buy a fleet of gas-guzzling trucks?

Earlier this year, USPS announced that it would buy 165,000 trucks from the manufacturer Oshkosh Defense, and that 90% of those would be gas powered. Environmental activists and Democratic politicians were outraged. Sixteen states and two environmental groups filed lawsuits.

The agency has since recalibrated, announcing last month that it would bump the proportion of electric mail trucks up to 40% of the new fleet. But with the passage of the IRA, the USPS is running out of reasons to move forward with purchasing any gas-powered vehicles at all.

In 2021, the USPS conducted an environmental impact review that found that it would cost $2.3 billion more to purchase 100 percent electric vehicles than it would to purchase a fleet with just 10 percent electric vehicles. But the Environmental Protection Agency found that analysis to be flawed. As Adrian Martinez, senior attorney on Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign, told me last week, “That analysis was so garbled and unsubstantiated, that actually they could have worked out 100 percent [electric] even with existing amounts [of funding].” Still, he said, if we take the USPS’ review at face value, the $3 billion outlined in the IRA should be enough to bridge the gap.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy did not mention the new funding during his remarks at the USPS Board of Governors meeting last week, but he did say that the agency would “capitalize on any EV opportunities…as our operating strategy continues to evolve.”

Until the USPS formalizes a new contract with Oshkosh Defense, the manufacturer of the new trucks, the lawsuits filed by states and environmental groups will go on. “Until they vacate that decision, we’re gonna proceed with the litigation,” Martinez said. “We need greater assurances than via press release about what their intentions are.”

Kim Frum, senior public relations representative at USPS, said to me in an email, “We have been monitoring the interest of Congress in funding electrification and should funding be enacted we will assess the impact on our plans.”

No matter what happens, the IRA’s provision for the electrification of the postal fleet is a promising sign. “This funding further confirms that their kind of heavy bend towards gas guzzling trucks is just wrong,” Martinez said, “and there’s a net support for them going electric.”

#us politics #news #biden administration #president joe biden #inflation reduction act #usps #united states postal service #louis dejoy #fire dejoy #2022 #mother jones #Oshkosh Defense #environmental protection agency #Adrian Martinez #electric vehicles

[kp777]

'We Won't Be Silenced!' Protesters Decry DeJoy at USPS Meeting

Defenders of the U.S. Postal Service are warning about an austerity plan by the Trump-appointed postmaster general that "will slash jobs and shrink processing centers and post offices."

#usps #louis dejoy

[sweetfirebird]

I hate Louis DeJoy and what he has done to postal service with a deep and fiery passion. Like, Republicans already fucked it over (America, did you know your mail used to arrive several times a day? Reliably?! And it was cheap!?) but DeJoy really slashed its jugular and is watching it bleed out so we can all turn to UPS and FedEx... you know, the private companies (he has an interest in) that can charge us whatever the fuck they want for basic services without the postal service there to keep their prices down.

I just ranted about this elsewhere but, 3 day Priority is a week now. Tracking, including in the price, now costs extra if you want real tracking, whatever that is, and their website is useless for anything but ordering stamps and renewing a post office box--and honestly I am not sure how long that will last.

#siiiiigh #louis dejoy #postmaster general #and general piece of shit #usps

[ultralaser]

it's almost midterms and louis dejoy is still postmaster general

#louis dejoy #usps #wt fuck #midterms

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

#louis dejoy #seditious domestic terrorism #tre45on

[aunti-christ-ine]

In case you haven't noticed: This tRUmpy MAGAt wants y'all to use only the companies that HE is heavily invested in and will highly profit from -- the competitors of the US Postal Service (mainly FedEx, UPS, & Amazon).

Y'know, Fat Louis certainly has the appropriate surname -- he takes DeJoy out of de USPS fer shure.

#louis dejoy #usps #fedex #ups #crook