[Peace-discuss] Postal Workers Union With 200, 000 Members Endorses Sanders

[Robert Naiman]

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-01-30/postal-workers-union-with-200-000-members-endorses-sanders

Postal Workers Union With 200,000 Members Endorses SandersBernie Sanders
has been endorsed by the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union.
By Associated Press <https://www.usnews.com/topics/author/associated-press>,
Wire Service Content Jan. 30, 2020, at 11:02 a.m.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bernie Sanders was endorsed Thursday by the
200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, an influential group that
also backed the Vermont senator's presidential bid against Hillary Clinton
during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

The union's support is key because it promises organizing muscle across the
country. Sanders says that if turnout is high during Monday's lead-off Iowa
caucus, he will win — and a win there will key victories in the next two
states that vote, New Hampshire and Nevada.

“As with 2016, once again the Sanders campaign is boldly uplifting the
goals and aspirations of workers," union president Mark Dimondstein said in
a statement. “Simply put, we believe it is in the best interests of all
postal workers, our job security and our union to support and elect Bernie
Sanders for president.”

Polls in Iowa and other states show Sanders bunched near the top of the
polls with former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth
Warren and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Warren and Sanders have both long called for expanding the services offered
by post offices, especially in rural communities, to include things like
banking.

National labor unions wield a great deal of influence in the Democratic
primary. Though many have yet to pick sides in the still-crowded 2020
Democratic primary, though the National Nurses United backed Sanders in
November, after endorsing him in 2016. Biden's campaign got an earlier
boost last year with the endorsement of the International Association of
Fire Fighters.

Buttigieg once worked at the high-powered consulting firm McKinsey &
Company and has previously released a client list that included the U.S.
Postal Service. In 2010, the Postal Service hired McKinsey and other
consulting firms and they eventually recommended ways to increase revenue,
including cutting back on daily mail service.

Buttigieg's campaign released a statement in December saying he was “part
of a team tasked with generating ideas to increase revenue like selling
greeting cards and increasing the use of flat rate boxes.” It added that
the candidate “never worked on cost-cutting or anything involving staff
reorganization or the privatization of essential post office services.”

In it's statement endorsing Sanders on Thursday, the postal workers' union
said that the Trump administration “has released a series of proposals that
would end the universal service requirement and also would make significant
changes in the pricing structure of mail products." It also noted that
there have also been calls to sell the federally run postal service to
private corporations.

The union promised to “encourage its members and their families who live
and work in all 50 states" to "join Sanders rallies, make individual
campaign contributions and volunteer for campaign activities.” It also said
it would launch voter registration drives and urge its members, their
families and friends to choose “vote by mail” options in states without
restrictions on absentee balloting.
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