As the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, sets its eyes on reforming the U.S. Postal Service, one of the main postal workers’ unions says it could lead to the privatization of one of America’s oldest public services.
In 2018, a task force commissioned by the Trump administration reported that privatizing the USPS would negatively impact rural areas.
“It's enshrined in the Constitution. It is a service. It is not a business,” Omar Gonzalez, the Western representative for the American Postal Workers Union said. “Privateers want to turn it into a business to make money.
He said millions of people rely on USPS to deliver mail at the same cost everywhere.
“The western region has in particular a vast amount of territory like Montana, Idaho.We provide service to the top of a mountain, down to to the lowest part of a gully.
Last week, DOGE offered to buy out 10,000 postal employees. Gonzalez says so far, 8,000 are set to leave at the end of April. He said this might open the door to layoffs among the more than 110,000 employees who are not tenured.
“We do not need DOGE coming in and gutting the operation in an attempt to sell it,” Gonzalez added. “And the reason they want to sell it is it's because it does make money.”
The postal service does not use tax money to operate. In 2024, despite making almost $80 billion in revenue, it reported a $9.5 billion deficit.
