i finished this last night and now trump is going to cancel federal union contracts...
Postal Workers Demonstrate Nationwide against Trump's Plan to Privatize the Postal Service
Over the past weekend, postal workers across the U.S. held protest demonstrations against the plan of President Trump to have the federal Department of Commerce take over the postal service, leading to its privatization.
Both of the main postal unions, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the National Letter Carriers union (NALC), sponsored the protests, each announcing over 200 actions.
The NALC has not published photos of its demonstrations, but the below pic of at least 500 postal workers demonstrating in Detroit shows a real massive effort. These were mostly letter carriers, but a number of APWU members also took part in solidarity.
The video below shows Detroit APWU workers picketing, maybe 100 strong, on a cold, wet day March 20, as part of the union's national mobilization.
https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/16119 ... 3yCiDm2UZA
The APWU published many photos of its rallies and pickets from around the country, but only the New York city rally (see photo below) seemed to have over 100 workers. But the large number of demos made an impression.
NY rally:
These demos leave no doubt that a significant section of the over-600,000 postal employees are willing to come out to protest Trump's plans. However, the national news media, as ever run by the big capitalists, would rather salivate at bigger profits Trump's fascism may bring them than support any upwelling of struggle by the working class. No matter how much damsge privatization would do, how much the mail system would be destroyed, how postal workers' and union rights would be trashed and poor people denied prescriptions by mail, there was very little coverage. Even in the media oriented to the Democratic Party, those alleged friends of the working class, not much was said.
The Democrats, weeping crocodile tears over losing the election, sobbed that they failed to support the working class. But when the opportunity arrives to support the postal workers, where are they? Nowhere. Bernie and AOC did not show up for the demos.
Postal workers and the working class in general are now faced with an unprecedented crisis. The Trump-Musk billionaire government is on a rapid, vicious assault on the working class and on all the agencies of the former liberal Biden administration. This fascist onslaught damages people and programs that the working class masses desperately need for their livelihood and mere survival. Among these agencies are the Department of Education, Medicaid, Social Security and – the Post Office.
The fascist Trump-Musk forces are moving fast and destroying everything they can. Congress is in the hands of the far-right Republicans, while the alleged opposition, the Democratic Party, is collapsing, some of its leaders calling for a surrender to Trump while others are pushing soft protest.
In their demos last week, large numbers of postal workers shouted their anger. At the moment they voiced the slogans of the leaderships and little else. “The US mail is not for sale!” was the only slogan in the Detroit APWU demo, while the NALC varied somewhat on the same theme. These are necessary slogans, but insufficient; much more is needed. One sign, held by a community supporter, slyly condemned Musk: “BAD DOGE”, but both demos should have been roaring “HEY, HEY, HO, HO! ELON MUSK HAS GOT TO GO!” At least, the NALC did include the forceful phrase “HELL NO!” in its protests. Literature, especially of the APWU, stressed the damage privatization would bring the poor and working-class masses. These points are important. The APWU also pointed out the disastrous effects Trump's takeover would have for the workers themselves – loss of union contract and possibly the whole host of worker protections in the contracts, whose weakness has often been critiqued and fought by the masses of the workers. These very necessary protections could be stripped by Trump completely. Many p[ostal jobs would be eliminated, with the loss of the no-layoff protection of the present contracts.
There was almost no left literature given out at either demo in Detroit. A small card given to a few did mention some kind of rally and march on May 1st, International Workers Day, but it gave no hint of its actual sponsors. The reformist-revisionist Communist Party USA had one person at the March 20th demo, with no literature.
Leading up to the protests, the leaderships of the APWU and the NALC organized a “perfect storm” – of phone calls to Congresspeople. This is a pillar of APWU president Marc Dimondstein's call to action to the APWU rank and file. Making such calls is a familiar form of protest often used by active postal workers, so the workers doing so are mobilized, but only to a limited extent. These calls create somewhat of a stink against Trump, but will be largely ineffective until (and if) new elections return a Democratic majority in Congress, which may be a long way off. The whole strategy of Trump and Musk is to concentrate all power in the executive, the President, Trump, as Project 2025 advocates. Waiting till 2026 or 2028 will not do; fascist rule may be consolidated by then.
And the Democrats are a flabby opposition. One example of Democratic flabbiness was failing to oust DeJoy as Postmaster General. When it could have been done by nominating a Democrat to the Board, Biden nominated a Republican, Kan. Other examples abound.
The NALC has mainly been pre-coccupied with its union contract, which just emerged from arbitration. NALC rank and file workers had massivey rejected an earlier, tentative contract; the leadershiprefused to try to negotiat for more but instead allowed the contract to go into arbiration.Thie new contract that just emerged is not impressive: a little over 1% per year in raises over three years, with some COLA payments thrown in; an additional 1% yearly for the lower-tier CCA's; a pledge to move a greater percent of them to career jobs; preservation of the no-layoff clause, and a few more items.
But, judging from the Detroit mobilization, NALC may have done a better job of bringing out the mass of workers.
However, these are, so far, all the mass-action arrows in the quiver of the postal labor bureaucracy, and they have fired them. Trump and Musk have given no sign of retreat from their plan to take over and then privatize the service.
What now? That is the big question.
It is notable that the poatal labor bureaucracy has focused solely on the preservation of the postal service. While the bureaucracy quite correctly tells the general public how it will be hurt by privatization, while also informing the postal workers of impending catastrophe, the postal unon leaders have done nothing about fighting the general assault of Trump/Musk on the government in general. Musk's threats to social security, his takeover of the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Trump's attack on the Department of Education, their assault on Medicaid, and many other agencies that have been blitzkrieged are deep threats to the masses of the working class, including postal workers, and nearly the whole population. Postal workers are highly concerned about all of these blitzkriegs and must take part in the general anti-fascist, anti-Musk and anti-Trump struggle. But the postal union bureaucrats are focusing the workers solely on the welfare of the post office. Fighting for the post office is a major part of fighting Trump, but is not the whole.
The postal protests are the first organized national protest of the working class to the Trump/Musk onslaught. which class is supposedly the support of Donald Trump. The national news media is trying to ignore the action of the postal workers, so that workers countrywide are kept in ignorance. But the public is heavily in support of the postal workers and is fermenting with anti-fascist opposition, to Musk especially. The town hall meetings have roared out that opposition; that opposition is not organized, but this one is.
However, the postal opposition, though working class in its composition, is organized not as a class waging a battle, but as a liberal opposition. It is asking that the takeover and privatization not take place and is mobilizing every rational argument that it not take place. It is making its appeal to a power – Congress – that is already committed against the workers. In addition, Congress is seeing its remaining power scorned by the fascist team of Trump and Musk.
The fundamental weapon of the working class – the strike – has been raised by flight attendants' union leader Sara Nelson, as a tactic in the national anti-fascist struggle. But it has not been raised by any of the postal union leaders. Marc Dimondstien of the APWU always includes reference to the 1970 postal strike in APWU literature as an example of what postal workers did in a major crisis. Well, what more major a crisis is there than what we now face? Can anyone come up with one? Impossible.
When Dimondstein had his Zoom meeting with union members a few weeks ago, one mentioned that she had participated in the 1970 strike. Dimondstein certainly knew that was an opportunity to mobilize the members for a more powerful method of struggle than phone calls and rallies. But he passed it over with a harmless pleasantry.
This is no time for carefreeness; there must be a reassessment of the seriousness of the situation. Rank-and-file members must do this; the union leadership has shown its cards. The threats have been underestimated. Phone calls and rallies are necessary; we have done them, but they are nowhere near enough.
There must be discussion among the rank and file of mobile picket lines in public places to further win public opinion. Much wider leafletting. Methods of physical defense of the postal service must be discussed. A strike must be discussed, whether to have it and how to orgnanize it. This has already been left to the last minute; it must be discussed now.
postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
Re: postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
The last post is a spirited draft article about the seriousness of the situation. But it is not so much about what happened at the Detroit rallies and the state of consciousness of the local postal workers at present, as about what would need to happen given the seriousness of the danger, if that danger is to be averted.
Yes, mass anger has broken against various actions of the Trump administration. The passive shock of the early days has been replaced with a serious of actions. That is important.
But in order to be of help in promoting the struggle, or in orienting the left as to what to do to play a role in it, we have to have a careful assessment of what's going on. I don't think the draft article focuses on this.
It concludes that "There must be rank and file of mobile picket lines in public places to further win public opinion. Much wider leafletting. Methods of physical defense of the postal service must be discussed. A strike must be discussed, whether to have it and how to organize it. This has already been left to the last minute; it must be discussed now."
But from the description of the events in Detroit, there isn't much motion to do much of this. It states that at the Detroit domes "At the moment they voiced the slogans of the leaderships and little else." How fast did we expect this to change?
Do a number of your fellow postal workers go much further than this? Do you know of some groupings among postal workers doing this? Do we have reason to expect such things as the tariff crisis or Social Security crisis, or the health crisis, will change matters soon? As you critique the left, do you know what the main groups active in this have said? The draft seems to indicate that you don't. Also, you make a point of whether groups distributed at the postal demonstrations. But I don't think we really know that, nor how their leaflets were received.
If we seriously think that there was going to be an upsurge among the postal workers, and that this might be the first mass strike that would set the Trump administration back on its heels, then should we devote effort to this? Have leaflets at their demonstrations and distributed in the communities? Redirect our study groups to writing these leaflets?
It raises that "The fundamental weapon of the working class – the strike – has been raised by flight attendants' union leader Sara Nelson, as a tactic in the national anti-fascist struggle." I would think that this is to give encouragement to the idea of striking.
However, has the Association of Flight Attendants done anything in that direction as far as the fight against Trumpism in the almost two months since then? Did Sara Nelson approach the postal workers or other unions in order to see about joint action? If the answer to such questions is no, then there is the issue of what this means about what the workers should expect from the unions. If the answer is, instead, yes, then it deserves solidarity and should be put forward.
It might well be that the postal unions either won't strike now, or will be defeated in what they do. It may be that the situation is going to get much worse before the Trump administration is seriously shaken. Do we have to anything to what to do in this situation? What should workers and activists do then? And as for left activists, what should they do to have a better role in the struggle than what is criticized in the draft?
An article on various protest actions doesn't have to deal with all that. It can just provide information about what has been done in these actions, and what this state of the local movement. By following the series of actions, one after the other, one step-by-step gets a picture of the situation. But if one instead writes about the general situation, one needs to deal with it carefully.
Yes, mass anger has broken against various actions of the Trump administration. The passive shock of the early days has been replaced with a serious of actions. That is important.
But in order to be of help in promoting the struggle, or in orienting the left as to what to do to play a role in it, we have to have a careful assessment of what's going on. I don't think the draft article focuses on this.
It concludes that "There must be rank and file of mobile picket lines in public places to further win public opinion. Much wider leafletting. Methods of physical defense of the postal service must be discussed. A strike must be discussed, whether to have it and how to organize it. This has already been left to the last minute; it must be discussed now."
But from the description of the events in Detroit, there isn't much motion to do much of this. It states that at the Detroit domes "At the moment they voiced the slogans of the leaderships and little else." How fast did we expect this to change?
Do a number of your fellow postal workers go much further than this? Do you know of some groupings among postal workers doing this? Do we have reason to expect such things as the tariff crisis or Social Security crisis, or the health crisis, will change matters soon? As you critique the left, do you know what the main groups active in this have said? The draft seems to indicate that you don't. Also, you make a point of whether groups distributed at the postal demonstrations. But I don't think we really know that, nor how their leaflets were received.
If we seriously think that there was going to be an upsurge among the postal workers, and that this might be the first mass strike that would set the Trump administration back on its heels, then should we devote effort to this? Have leaflets at their demonstrations and distributed in the communities? Redirect our study groups to writing these leaflets?
It raises that "The fundamental weapon of the working class – the strike – has been raised by flight attendants' union leader Sara Nelson, as a tactic in the national anti-fascist struggle." I would think that this is to give encouragement to the idea of striking.
However, has the Association of Flight Attendants done anything in that direction as far as the fight against Trumpism in the almost two months since then? Did Sara Nelson approach the postal workers or other unions in order to see about joint action? If the answer to such questions is no, then there is the issue of what this means about what the workers should expect from the unions. If the answer is, instead, yes, then it deserves solidarity and should be put forward.
It might well be that the postal unions either won't strike now, or will be defeated in what they do. It may be that the situation is going to get much worse before the Trump administration is seriously shaken. Do we have to anything to what to do in this situation? What should workers and activists do then? And as for left activists, what should they do to have a better role in the struggle than what is criticized in the draft?
An article on various protest actions doesn't have to deal with all that. It can just provide information about what has been done in these actions, and what this state of the local movement. By following the series of actions, one after the other, one step-by-step gets a picture of the situation. But if one instead writes about the general situation, one needs to deal with it carefully.
Re: postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
I see y0our point. There is a debate that has broken out among postal people associated with that labor notes group, discussing what tactics to use. let me bring a few example here.
i will also try to make a smaller article out of this, along the lines you mention.
i will also try to make a smaller article out of this, along the lines you mention.
Re: postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
some voices in an email debate among activists around that postal group of labor notes supporters. this discussion just started. i post it here in order from the oldest to the newest comments:
march 28, jamie patridge, the leader of the postal organizing group, posted this:
On Fri, Mar 28, 2025 at 11:47 AM Jamie Partridge <jamie.partridge1@gmail.com> wrote:
Winning without the Strike
(yes, we need the “Right to Strike” but in the meantime…)
Direct Action / Civil Disobedience
– lessons from the past – winning without the strike weapon
i. Widespread (across the nation, coordinated) use of non-strike, local action
pickets, marches, rallies, press conferences, skits, stickers, buttons, hats, t-shirts, posters, cartoons, flyers, petitions,
walk into work together, reluctant & slow compliance, mass medical restrictions to 8 hours, bring back mail after dark (or after ten hours) for safety, light-blue “flu”, work-to-rule, frequent fire alarms, bomb threats, mysterious smoke bombs, overloading usps website & emails
march together into the manager’s office, turn back on the manager/supervisor at stand-ups, hum or sing when they walks by, etc.
withdraw from joint USPS-union projects – eg. carrier academy, OJI,
make all grievances class-action with many witnesses, constantly call OSHA, file ULPS, EEOs, postal inspectors
Rolling actions from station to station, city to city; surprise management, feint one-way, go another
ii. Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement – March on Washington, Freedom Riders
Postal Road Warriors – rolling actions, city-to-city
Motorcades, mock funerals, stand-ins, mill-ins, ride-ins, honk-in, chanting, bull horn, singing, flyering, giant puppets, giant inflatable rat outside the plant, billboards, tv/radio/social media ads
Target decision-makers -- Show up at offices, dinners, events, homes of postmasters (regional, national), PBOG. Publicize their phone numbers & emails.
Disrupt PBOG meeting (get thrown out), pray-ins, take over the podium, the room, stand-up (refuse to sit down), encampment in front of DC Postal HQ
2013 Oregon retirees, family members and community members – blocked plant truck entrances to delay the work, rolling blockades
2012 DC hunger strikes, encampment on nat’l mall, sit-in to arrest in Congress Critter’s office against 5-day delivery (we won)
2013 “Occupy the Post Office” – Oregon’s post office occupations to arrest, plant occupations to arrest, postmaster’s office to arrest, visited postmaster’s home w petition. Marched through post offices. Charges always dropped if enough arrests (not clog up the courts). We stopped plant and post office closures.
2020 Protests outside Board of Governor’s homes (x3), flyered neighbors, held candle light vigils
2020 National actions at every post office – We stopped DeJoy/Trump attempt to sabotage mail voting
nalc acivist pennock answered:
Mar 28, 2025 at 6:52 AM Chris Pennock <chrisccp15@gmail.com> wrote:
I like a lot of this, however, I feel the need to push back on bomb threats and mysterious smoke bombs. These are not the kinds of actions that will bring people into the movement, instead, they will have the opposite effect. I understand where the impulse comes from but we need to remember the George Floyd protests. Those protests started dying off very quickly the more violence and anarchy there was that was associated with them.
(i don' know her): On Mar 28, 2025, at 12:15 PM, Evelyn Allen <pearl7916@gmail.com> wrote:
Ok…hear me out. What about fighting with our dollars? Because that’s the only language they speak!
I don't like the way Mango Mussolini, and First Lady Elonia Muskrat is trying to privatize the post office. I don't like the way this administration is trying to erase black excellence. They are basically trying to bring back slavery into full effect.
So, just like Target felt the effect of the absence of 'the black dollar'....I say we do the same thing to the federal government.
For one QTR....all postal employees should go to liteblue and change their federal deductions to EXEMPT. DONT PAY ANY FEDERAL TAXES FOR ONE QTR!!
As of 2023, there were a total 635,000 USPS employees nationwide. If we could just get a fraction of those employees to do this for one QTR, imagine the bargaining power we would have!
It only took one day for Target to get the message. Imagine what kind of impact we can make in 3 months!!
I don’t know
….just my two cents. What do you guys think?
On Fri, Mar 28, 2025 at 7:25 AM Isaiah Cruz <thebrightbarber@icloud.com> wrote:
The attempt to revive any strike or disruption through not buying something is clearly not going to work. Obviously this movement is spurred by the democrats fledgling around to find some semblance of the public that is willing to work for them to foment disruption within the United States. Even the “great postal strike of 1971” ultimately was not organic but used to privatize the post office to its current Impotent state. What is needed now is leadership with the capability to understand universal history so that they can meet the moment of great fight that is continuing not from the republicans but ultimately from the british. What Benjamin Franklin set out to do and why he created the post office ultimately was to make an informed citizenry capable of fighting the lies coming from across the pond. The question for all postal workers is will we protest for the british or will we educate our minds in the true intention of the founding fathers of Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. If any of this sounds profound in its brevity, please respond with a resounding reply. For those sleepwalkers, they need not respond.
Maxwell Olsen
From:
maxeolsen@gmail.com
To:
Evelyn Allen
Cc:
Steven Olender
,
Isaiah Cruz
,
Chris Pennock
,
Jamie Partridge
,
R&F Postal Organizers
Fri, Mar 28 at 2:13 PM
I like the idea of hitting them in the pocketbook, but I don't think the tactic of exempting our tax deductions will be an effective strategy.
First off we would be asking our members to take a pretty big financial risk, but that isn't really why I think it would be ineffective, so let's assume we can clear that hurdle.
If all 200,000 carriers participated in this action, what effect would this have on the federal budget and the government's ability to function? There are 160+ million workers in the US, so letter NALC members make up about 0.1% of the total workforce.
In addition to the very small percentage of the total workforce we make up, we also have the issue of how the federal budget works. Even if we were capable of causing harm with this action, the government has the ability to deficit spend. This makes it extremely hard to create leverage from this type of action. Even in the best case scenarios we would probably just end up with congress increasing the debt limit slightly sooner than they would have anyway.
If we are going to use money as the leverage point I think we would need buy in from state governments. We would need states like CA and NY to start witholding funds as a leverage point against benefits cuts. Short of that type of action I don't think we will see much movement from this approach.
Evelyn Allen
Fri, Mar 28 at 2:27 PM
What if we go all the other unions to participate? I mean all unions associated with the AFL-CIO?
(TH: in what, is not clear? the scheme about tac deductions, i think.)
Maxwell Olsen Fri, Mar 28 at 2:37 PM
Union density is pretty low in the US (around 10%), and you have to assume not all members would participate if called on, so I think you would still have the issue of it not creating the leverage we need.
We would also have the issue of once other unions are involved it's not our action with our demands, now it's a collective action, and what will other unions/groups be looking for as the ask.
Are you familiar with groups like the debt collective? They focus on witholding payments as a strategy. They could be a good group to get in contact with if this is a strategy you're really interested in purusing. They might have some active campaigns you could get involved with, or resources that would help with initial organizing strategies if this is something you wanted to build towards.
Evelyn Allen
R&F Postal Organizers
Fri, Mar 28 at 3:14 PM
Just thought I would offer an idea. Because there’s absolutely 0% chance I will ever march, protest, or release smoke bombs during THIS regime!
Don Cheney
Fri, Mar 28 at 6:58 PM
Trump moves to strip unionization rights from most federal workers
President Donald Trump issued an executive order late Thursday night relying on a rarely used provision of the federal labor laws that authorizes the president to exclude agencies from long-standing unionization rights if he determines that those agencies are primarily engaged in national security work.
The order would eliminate collective bargaining rights from roughly 67 percent of the entire federal workforce and for 75 percent of workers who are already in a union, according to a report by Government Executive, a publication that covers the business of government primarily for an audience of senior bureaucrats.
Statement of APWU President Mark Dimondstein on New Executive Order Attacking Workers' Rights
(0n apwu site march 30:
"The Washington Post has reported that the Trump Administration will soon issue an Executive Order firing the Postal Board of Governors, and placing the United States Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department.
"If this reporting is true, it would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally
"Fill out the form below to call and urge your Representatives to support HRes. 70 and protect the people's Post Office."
and Dimondstein's statement of March 28 about Trump's abrogation of federal union contracts:
"Statement of APWU President Mark Dimondstein on New Executive Order Attacking Workers' Rights
Mark Dimondstein March 28, 2025
"Workers and their unions are under attack with a new executive order issued by President Trump stripping the union rights of nearly a million federal workers. Trump’s executive order abolishes existing union contracts, eliminates collective bargaining rights, orders agencies to stop processing grievances, and prohibits payroll union dues collection.
"Wrapped in the bogus guise of “national security concerns,” this is the most serious attack on unionized workers in this country in at least a generation.
"The President of the United States claimed during the recent election to be a friend of working people. No “friend” of working people would take action to destroy, rather than uplift, unions and workers’ rights.
"This executive order is part of an ongoing assault on all workers, and our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association. Make no mistake, postal workers will not be spared from this Administration and their billionaire benefactors’ war on workers.
"These dictatorial actions, with no respect for the law, come right out of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party’s playbook. Shortly after coming to power in 1933, the Nazis launched an assault on the independent trade union movement, dissolving unions, seizing union funds, and beating, imprisoning, and murdering union leaders.
"Working people and our unions must face the seriousness of these attacks with our weapons of solidarity and action. President Trump has made his intentions clear – he is out to destroy the labor movement. Now is the time for every worker to stand up and fight back!
"Our sisters and brothers at AFGE, the largest federal union, are urging every worker to take action today. Call your members of Congress at 817-904-8624 and urge them to stop this attack on working people. Digital actions are available at mobilize.us/afge
"Stay tuned for more actions and demonstrations to come."
from someone named Bill:
'web214ny@aol.com' via Postal workers organizing committee
From:
postalorganizing@labornotes.org
To:
Jamie Partridge
Chris Pennock
Cc: R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 7:45 AM
Everyone,
I agree with Chris that a lot this looks good, with the exception of the smoke bombs, bomb threats and false fire alarms which in my view are both bad strategy and even dangerous. (Amid a flood of false alarms would our co-workers take a warning of a real one as seriously?).
The bigger question, however, is that all the tactics mentioned don't come to grips with the massiveness of the threat. This is no cutbacks, closures and reduced delivery plan of 2012. Nor is it PMG Donohoe's proposal then to make the health plan 'Walmart-style' (his words).
No, this is the beginning of a scheme to sell off USPS in whole or part while taking away our collective bargaining rights. The government has already done this with TSA and last Thursday, Trump issued an executive order to to the same with 67% of all federal workers.
This is a massive existential attack. It demand the strongest of defenses.
So yes, that dreaded S-word needs to come into play. I recognize that one wants to strike, and that we are very unprepared to do it. But it should be talked about, preparations should be made. (And the more discussion and preparations for one will make all the non-strike actions that much more effective).
Preparations: at a local level, groups of all crafts to begin discussing the question and reaching out to potential allies like federal workers, Teamsters, community and religious groups, &c. At a broader level, the need for mass Zoom calls to discuss and coordinate all the stuff happening on the ground. At all levels, raise 'strike' as part of chants, as in 'Whose Post Office? The People's Post Office! Get ready to Strike!'; or as in N.Y., 'Hell No We Won't Go...If It's Sold!'. I'm sure others have better ideas.
In solidarity,
Bill
Noelle Tryon
From:
ntryon@gmail.com
To:
web214ny@aol.com
,
'web214ny@aol.com' via Postal workers organizing committee
R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 8:49 AM
Methinks collective action of any type, even just smaller things like marching on the boss or Union T-Shirt Tuesday (or something similarly alliterative) could be good starting points to get people used to acting together and test our organizational structures.
–Noelle Tryon (she/her)
APWU, PDX Area local, rank-and-file member
Noelle Tryon
From:
ntryon@gmail.com
To: postalorganizing@labornotes.org
R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 8:57 AM
Responding directly here since the rest of the thread seems to have moved on…
I think this would be a good step for us and other unions if/when payroll deductions for union dues are banned. My guess is that it would come across to people as an entirely (or at least plausibly) justified tit-for-tat response: you ban deductions for our union dues, we cut off our deductions for social-service/warmongering dues.
We'd probably also want to make sure to provide at least some rule-of-thumb guidance (with appropriate legal disclaimers) for how much members should be squirreling away in savings accounts so they don't run into trouble the following April.
–Noelle Tryon (she/her)
APWU, PDX Area local, rank-and-file member
Email: ntryon@gmail.com
Joe Piette
From:
jpiette660@hotmail.com
R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 8:58 AM
I totally agree with Bill. In a postal service already divided by crafts/unions, with little experience of militant actions within the USPS or in solidarity with other workers outside of the post office, defending our jobs, benefits and public service during such a fast-moving attack will be difficult.
The first necessity is talking about it, as Bill raises.
I like listing so many action options. I'm sure even more possible militant and imaginitive ideas will come up during worker discussions. Talking about the great postal wildcat strike 55 years ago helps us put co-workers in a "what if we did that again?" frame of mind.
Another worker action almost 90 years ago should also be considered: The 1936 Sit-Down Strike That Shook the Auto Industry | HISTORY
The 1936 Sit-Down Strike That Shook the Auto Industry
The workers weren’t on vacation: They were on strike. Over 44 days in 1936 and 1937, members of the fledgling United Auto Workers union managed to bring an auto behemoth to its knees in a sit ...
www.history.com
As a people's post office, a sit-in or some hybrid version of it would have the advantage of encouraging support of our families and surrounding communities, as happened in 1936-7.
I'm not saying it would be easy to organize, but if we're listing possible work actions, sit-ins are something to consider too.
Joe
Mike Bates, president of the Des Moines, Iowa, apwu local, posted a link to an interview : in it "Jordan Chariton interviewed Paul Prescod, a contributor for Jacobin, about a new memo from Wells Fargo that reveals the bank and other private sector companies plans to privatize much of the United States Postal Service and then decimate the unionized workforce and benefits."
Steve Brown, apwu member and a frequent commentator on r and f postal, posted the following, followed by a lengthy list of articles and videos condemning trump's action:
Back
Archive
Move
Delete
Spam
Trump's executive order destroying most federal unions
Yahoo
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APWU + NALC
steve brown
From:
stevebrowndenver3@hotmail.com
Sat, Mar 29 at 2:16 PM
Attached please find the stunning official statement from the Office of Personnel Management issued on Thursday, March 27th, destroying most federal unions. Thank you, Don Chaney, for first notifying us of this. As Mark Dimondstein stated (https://apwu.org/news/workers-rights/st ... ng-workers), Trump’s executive order abolishes existing union contracts, eliminates collective bargaining rights, orders agencies to stop processing grievances, and prohibits payroll union dues collection. Now "underperforming employees" will be fired with a low burden of proof and without recourse. The order calls for large-scale reductions in force. It ends the right of union stewards to conduct union business on the clock and prohibits agencies from providing unions with office space. The executive order and OPM statement apply to about 67% of all federal workers.
On Mar 29, 2025, at 11:24 PM, Mike Bates <mjbates2016@gmail.com> wrote:
https://peoplesworld.org/article/panel- ... on-threat/
TH: this is summary of a March 25th panel of the four postal union leaders, in which dimondstein is seen as leading the fight against privatization but no one gives a plan to fight it. Dimondstein even gets in some praise for DeJoy, alleging that "“DeJoy personally respected the unions. We were able to work out changes with him, giving non-career folks a career” at the USPS."
victoria sawicki, sf apwu
Sun, Mar 30 at 12:26 PM
Thanks Mike!!! Finally our leaders are joining forces !(?)!
Vicki
TH: after these, yesterday the interest of these commentators moved to the "Hands Off!" rallies.
Here, the comments by Bill and Joe seem to launch a serious discussion of striking, but it goes no further for now.
march 28, jamie patridge, the leader of the postal organizing group, posted this:
On Fri, Mar 28, 2025 at 11:47 AM Jamie Partridge <jamie.partridge1@gmail.com> wrote:
Winning without the Strike
(yes, we need the “Right to Strike” but in the meantime…)
Direct Action / Civil Disobedience
– lessons from the past – winning without the strike weapon
i. Widespread (across the nation, coordinated) use of non-strike, local action
pickets, marches, rallies, press conferences, skits, stickers, buttons, hats, t-shirts, posters, cartoons, flyers, petitions,
walk into work together, reluctant & slow compliance, mass medical restrictions to 8 hours, bring back mail after dark (or after ten hours) for safety, light-blue “flu”, work-to-rule, frequent fire alarms, bomb threats, mysterious smoke bombs, overloading usps website & emails
march together into the manager’s office, turn back on the manager/supervisor at stand-ups, hum or sing when they walks by, etc.
withdraw from joint USPS-union projects – eg. carrier academy, OJI,
make all grievances class-action with many witnesses, constantly call OSHA, file ULPS, EEOs, postal inspectors
Rolling actions from station to station, city to city; surprise management, feint one-way, go another
ii. Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement – March on Washington, Freedom Riders
Postal Road Warriors – rolling actions, city-to-city
Motorcades, mock funerals, stand-ins, mill-ins, ride-ins, honk-in, chanting, bull horn, singing, flyering, giant puppets, giant inflatable rat outside the plant, billboards, tv/radio/social media ads
Target decision-makers -- Show up at offices, dinners, events, homes of postmasters (regional, national), PBOG. Publicize their phone numbers & emails.
Disrupt PBOG meeting (get thrown out), pray-ins, take over the podium, the room, stand-up (refuse to sit down), encampment in front of DC Postal HQ
2013 Oregon retirees, family members and community members – blocked plant truck entrances to delay the work, rolling blockades
2012 DC hunger strikes, encampment on nat’l mall, sit-in to arrest in Congress Critter’s office against 5-day delivery (we won)
2013 “Occupy the Post Office” – Oregon’s post office occupations to arrest, plant occupations to arrest, postmaster’s office to arrest, visited postmaster’s home w petition. Marched through post offices. Charges always dropped if enough arrests (not clog up the courts). We stopped plant and post office closures.
2020 Protests outside Board of Governor’s homes (x3), flyered neighbors, held candle light vigils
2020 National actions at every post office – We stopped DeJoy/Trump attempt to sabotage mail voting
nalc acivist pennock answered:
Mar 28, 2025 at 6:52 AM Chris Pennock <chrisccp15@gmail.com> wrote:
I like a lot of this, however, I feel the need to push back on bomb threats and mysterious smoke bombs. These are not the kinds of actions that will bring people into the movement, instead, they will have the opposite effect. I understand where the impulse comes from but we need to remember the George Floyd protests. Those protests started dying off very quickly the more violence and anarchy there was that was associated with them.
(i don' know her): On Mar 28, 2025, at 12:15 PM, Evelyn Allen <pearl7916@gmail.com> wrote:
Ok…hear me out. What about fighting with our dollars? Because that’s the only language they speak!
I don't like the way Mango Mussolini, and First Lady Elonia Muskrat is trying to privatize the post office. I don't like the way this administration is trying to erase black excellence. They are basically trying to bring back slavery into full effect.
So, just like Target felt the effect of the absence of 'the black dollar'....I say we do the same thing to the federal government.
For one QTR....all postal employees should go to liteblue and change their federal deductions to EXEMPT. DONT PAY ANY FEDERAL TAXES FOR ONE QTR!!
As of 2023, there were a total 635,000 USPS employees nationwide. If we could just get a fraction of those employees to do this for one QTR, imagine the bargaining power we would have!
It only took one day for Target to get the message. Imagine what kind of impact we can make in 3 months!!
I don’t know
….just my two cents. What do you guys think?On Fri, Mar 28, 2025 at 7:25 AM Isaiah Cruz <thebrightbarber@icloud.com> wrote:
The attempt to revive any strike or disruption through not buying something is clearly not going to work. Obviously this movement is spurred by the democrats fledgling around to find some semblance of the public that is willing to work for them to foment disruption within the United States. Even the “great postal strike of 1971” ultimately was not organic but used to privatize the post office to its current Impotent state. What is needed now is leadership with the capability to understand universal history so that they can meet the moment of great fight that is continuing not from the republicans but ultimately from the british. What Benjamin Franklin set out to do and why he created the post office ultimately was to make an informed citizenry capable of fighting the lies coming from across the pond. The question for all postal workers is will we protest for the british or will we educate our minds in the true intention of the founding fathers of Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. If any of this sounds profound in its brevity, please respond with a resounding reply. For those sleepwalkers, they need not respond.
Maxwell Olsen
From:
maxeolsen@gmail.com
To:
Evelyn Allen
Cc:
Steven Olender
,
Isaiah Cruz
,
Chris Pennock
,
Jamie Partridge
,
R&F Postal Organizers
Fri, Mar 28 at 2:13 PM
I like the idea of hitting them in the pocketbook, but I don't think the tactic of exempting our tax deductions will be an effective strategy.
First off we would be asking our members to take a pretty big financial risk, but that isn't really why I think it would be ineffective, so let's assume we can clear that hurdle.
If all 200,000 carriers participated in this action, what effect would this have on the federal budget and the government's ability to function? There are 160+ million workers in the US, so letter NALC members make up about 0.1% of the total workforce.
In addition to the very small percentage of the total workforce we make up, we also have the issue of how the federal budget works. Even if we were capable of causing harm with this action, the government has the ability to deficit spend. This makes it extremely hard to create leverage from this type of action. Even in the best case scenarios we would probably just end up with congress increasing the debt limit slightly sooner than they would have anyway.
If we are going to use money as the leverage point I think we would need buy in from state governments. We would need states like CA and NY to start witholding funds as a leverage point against benefits cuts. Short of that type of action I don't think we will see much movement from this approach.
Evelyn Allen
Fri, Mar 28 at 2:27 PM
What if we go all the other unions to participate? I mean all unions associated with the AFL-CIO?
(TH: in what, is not clear? the scheme about tac deductions, i think.)
Maxwell Olsen Fri, Mar 28 at 2:37 PM
Union density is pretty low in the US (around 10%), and you have to assume not all members would participate if called on, so I think you would still have the issue of it not creating the leverage we need.
We would also have the issue of once other unions are involved it's not our action with our demands, now it's a collective action, and what will other unions/groups be looking for as the ask.
Are you familiar with groups like the debt collective? They focus on witholding payments as a strategy. They could be a good group to get in contact with if this is a strategy you're really interested in purusing. They might have some active campaigns you could get involved with, or resources that would help with initial organizing strategies if this is something you wanted to build towards.
Evelyn Allen
R&F Postal Organizers
Fri, Mar 28 at 3:14 PM
Just thought I would offer an idea. Because there’s absolutely 0% chance I will ever march, protest, or release smoke bombs during THIS regime!
Don Cheney
Fri, Mar 28 at 6:58 PM
Trump moves to strip unionization rights from most federal workers
President Donald Trump issued an executive order late Thursday night relying on a rarely used provision of the federal labor laws that authorizes the president to exclude agencies from long-standing unionization rights if he determines that those agencies are primarily engaged in national security work.
The order would eliminate collective bargaining rights from roughly 67 percent of the entire federal workforce and for 75 percent of workers who are already in a union, according to a report by Government Executive, a publication that covers the business of government primarily for an audience of senior bureaucrats.
Statement of APWU President Mark Dimondstein on New Executive Order Attacking Workers' Rights
(0n apwu site march 30:
"The Washington Post has reported that the Trump Administration will soon issue an Executive Order firing the Postal Board of Governors, and placing the United States Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department.
"If this reporting is true, it would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally
"Fill out the form below to call and urge your Representatives to support HRes. 70 and protect the people's Post Office."
and Dimondstein's statement of March 28 about Trump's abrogation of federal union contracts:
"Statement of APWU President Mark Dimondstein on New Executive Order Attacking Workers' Rights
Mark Dimondstein March 28, 2025
"Workers and their unions are under attack with a new executive order issued by President Trump stripping the union rights of nearly a million federal workers. Trump’s executive order abolishes existing union contracts, eliminates collective bargaining rights, orders agencies to stop processing grievances, and prohibits payroll union dues collection.
"Wrapped in the bogus guise of “national security concerns,” this is the most serious attack on unionized workers in this country in at least a generation.
"The President of the United States claimed during the recent election to be a friend of working people. No “friend” of working people would take action to destroy, rather than uplift, unions and workers’ rights.
"This executive order is part of an ongoing assault on all workers, and our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association. Make no mistake, postal workers will not be spared from this Administration and their billionaire benefactors’ war on workers.
"These dictatorial actions, with no respect for the law, come right out of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party’s playbook. Shortly after coming to power in 1933, the Nazis launched an assault on the independent trade union movement, dissolving unions, seizing union funds, and beating, imprisoning, and murdering union leaders.
"Working people and our unions must face the seriousness of these attacks with our weapons of solidarity and action. President Trump has made his intentions clear – he is out to destroy the labor movement. Now is the time for every worker to stand up and fight back!
"Our sisters and brothers at AFGE, the largest federal union, are urging every worker to take action today. Call your members of Congress at 817-904-8624 and urge them to stop this attack on working people. Digital actions are available at mobilize.us/afge
"Stay tuned for more actions and demonstrations to come."
from someone named Bill:
'web214ny@aol.com' via Postal workers organizing committee
From:
postalorganizing@labornotes.org
To:
Jamie Partridge
Chris Pennock
Cc: R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 7:45 AM
Everyone,
I agree with Chris that a lot this looks good, with the exception of the smoke bombs, bomb threats and false fire alarms which in my view are both bad strategy and even dangerous. (Amid a flood of false alarms would our co-workers take a warning of a real one as seriously?).
The bigger question, however, is that all the tactics mentioned don't come to grips with the massiveness of the threat. This is no cutbacks, closures and reduced delivery plan of 2012. Nor is it PMG Donohoe's proposal then to make the health plan 'Walmart-style' (his words).
No, this is the beginning of a scheme to sell off USPS in whole or part while taking away our collective bargaining rights. The government has already done this with TSA and last Thursday, Trump issued an executive order to to the same with 67% of all federal workers.
This is a massive existential attack. It demand the strongest of defenses.
So yes, that dreaded S-word needs to come into play. I recognize that one wants to strike, and that we are very unprepared to do it. But it should be talked about, preparations should be made. (And the more discussion and preparations for one will make all the non-strike actions that much more effective).
Preparations: at a local level, groups of all crafts to begin discussing the question and reaching out to potential allies like federal workers, Teamsters, community and religious groups, &c. At a broader level, the need for mass Zoom calls to discuss and coordinate all the stuff happening on the ground. At all levels, raise 'strike' as part of chants, as in 'Whose Post Office? The People's Post Office! Get ready to Strike!'; or as in N.Y., 'Hell No We Won't Go...If It's Sold!'. I'm sure others have better ideas.
In solidarity,
Bill
Noelle Tryon
From:
ntryon@gmail.com
To:
web214ny@aol.com
,
'web214ny@aol.com' via Postal workers organizing committee
R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 8:49 AM
Methinks collective action of any type, even just smaller things like marching on the boss or Union T-Shirt Tuesday (or something similarly alliterative) could be good starting points to get people used to acting together and test our organizational structures.
–Noelle Tryon (she/her)
APWU, PDX Area local, rank-and-file member
Noelle Tryon
From:
ntryon@gmail.com
To: postalorganizing@labornotes.org
R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 8:57 AM
Responding directly here since the rest of the thread seems to have moved on…
I think this would be a good step for us and other unions if/when payroll deductions for union dues are banned. My guess is that it would come across to people as an entirely (or at least plausibly) justified tit-for-tat response: you ban deductions for our union dues, we cut off our deductions for social-service/warmongering dues.
We'd probably also want to make sure to provide at least some rule-of-thumb guidance (with appropriate legal disclaimers) for how much members should be squirreling away in savings accounts so they don't run into trouble the following April.
–Noelle Tryon (she/her)
APWU, PDX Area local, rank-and-file member
Email: ntryon@gmail.comJoe Piette
From:
jpiette660@hotmail.com
R&F Postal Organizers
Sat, Mar 29 at 8:58 AM
I totally agree with Bill. In a postal service already divided by crafts/unions, with little experience of militant actions within the USPS or in solidarity with other workers outside of the post office, defending our jobs, benefits and public service during such a fast-moving attack will be difficult.
The first necessity is talking about it, as Bill raises.
I like listing so many action options. I'm sure even more possible militant and imaginitive ideas will come up during worker discussions. Talking about the great postal wildcat strike 55 years ago helps us put co-workers in a "what if we did that again?" frame of mind.
Another worker action almost 90 years ago should also be considered: The 1936 Sit-Down Strike That Shook the Auto Industry | HISTORY
The 1936 Sit-Down Strike That Shook the Auto Industry
The workers weren’t on vacation: They were on strike. Over 44 days in 1936 and 1937, members of the fledgling United Auto Workers union managed to bring an auto behemoth to its knees in a sit ...
www.history.com
As a people's post office, a sit-in or some hybrid version of it would have the advantage of encouraging support of our families and surrounding communities, as happened in 1936-7.
I'm not saying it would be easy to organize, but if we're listing possible work actions, sit-ins are something to consider too.
Joe
Mike Bates, president of the Des Moines, Iowa, apwu local, posted a link to an interview : in it "Jordan Chariton interviewed Paul Prescod, a contributor for Jacobin, about a new memo from Wells Fargo that reveals the bank and other private sector companies plans to privatize much of the United States Postal Service and then decimate the unionized workforce and benefits."
Steve Brown, apwu member and a frequent commentator on r and f postal, posted the following, followed by a lengthy list of articles and videos condemning trump's action:
Back
Archive
Move
Delete
Spam
Trump's executive order destroying most federal unions
Yahoo
/
APWU + NALC
steve brown
From:
stevebrowndenver3@hotmail.com
Sat, Mar 29 at 2:16 PM
Attached please find the stunning official statement from the Office of Personnel Management issued on Thursday, March 27th, destroying most federal unions. Thank you, Don Chaney, for first notifying us of this. As Mark Dimondstein stated (https://apwu.org/news/workers-rights/st ... ng-workers), Trump’s executive order abolishes existing union contracts, eliminates collective bargaining rights, orders agencies to stop processing grievances, and prohibits payroll union dues collection. Now "underperforming employees" will be fired with a low burden of proof and without recourse. The order calls for large-scale reductions in force. It ends the right of union stewards to conduct union business on the clock and prohibits agencies from providing unions with office space. The executive order and OPM statement apply to about 67% of all federal workers.
On Mar 29, 2025, at 11:24 PM, Mike Bates <mjbates2016@gmail.com> wrote:
https://peoplesworld.org/article/panel- ... on-threat/
TH: this is summary of a March 25th panel of the four postal union leaders, in which dimondstein is seen as leading the fight against privatization but no one gives a plan to fight it. Dimondstein even gets in some praise for DeJoy, alleging that "“DeJoy personally respected the unions. We were able to work out changes with him, giving non-career folks a career” at the USPS."
victoria sawicki, sf apwu
Sun, Mar 30 at 12:26 PM
Thanks Mike!!! Finally our leaders are joining forces !(?)!
Vicki
TH: after these, yesterday the interest of these commentators moved to the "Hands Off!" rallies.
Here, the comments by Bill and Joe seem to launch a serious discussion of striking, but it goes no further for now.
Re: postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
here is a new short version of the article:
Postal Workers Demonstrate Nationwide against Trump's Plan to Privatize the Postal Service
Over the past weekend, postal workers across the U.S. held protest demonstrations against the plan of President Trump to have the federal Department of Commerce take over the postal service, leading to its privatization.
Both of the main postal unions, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the National Letter Carriers union (NALC), sponsored the protests, each announcing over 200 actions.
The NALC has not published photos of its demonstrations, but the below pic of at least 500 postal workers demonstrating in Detroit shows a real massive effort. These were mostly letter carriers, but a number of APWU members, who are window clerks or work in the processing plant, also took part in solidarity.
The video below shows Detroit APWU workers picketing, maybe 100 strong, on a cold, wet day March 20, as part of the union's national mobilization.
https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/16119 ... 3yCiDm2UZA
The APWU published many photos of its rallies and pickets from around the country, but only the New York city rally (see photo below) seemed to have over 100 workers. But the large number of demos made an impression on the public.
NY rally:
These demos leave no doubt that a significant section of the over-600,000 postal employees are willing to come out to protest Trump's plans. However, the national news media, as ever run by the big capitalists, would rather salivate at bigger profits Trump's fascism may bring them than support any upwelling of struggle by the working class. No matter how much damage privatization would do,, there was very little coverage. Even in the media oriented to the Democratic Party, alleged friends of postal workers, not much was said.
The Democrats have wept tears over losing the election due to failing to support the working class. But when is their support for the postal workers? Bernie and AOC did not show up for the demos.
Postal workers and the whole working class are now faced with an unprecedented crisis. The Trump-Musk billionaires on a vicious assault on all federal agencies, damaging programs that the working class masses desperately need, including the Department of Education, Medicaid, Social Security and – the Post Office.
Trump and Musk forces are destroying everything they can. Congress is in the hands of the far-right Republicans, while the Democrats, allegedly the opposition, are collapsing, Some Dem leaders call for a surrender to Trump while others are pushing soft protest.
In the postal demos last week, large numbers of postal workers shouted their anger. At the moment they voiced the slogans of the leaderships and little else. “The US mail is not for sale!” These necessary slogans are insufficient. The need to roar: “HEY, HEY, HO, HO! ELON MUSK HAS GOT TO GO!” The NALC did include the forceful phrase “HELL NO!” but that as it for militancy. APWU literature stressed the damage privatization would bring the poor and working-class masses and pointed out the disastrous effects Trump's takeover would have for the workers themselves – loss of union contract and possibly the whole host of worker protections in the contracts. These vital protections could be completely stripped by Trump. Many p[ostal jobs would be eliminated with the loss of contractual no-layoff protection.
No literature at either demo in Detroit showed any serious discussion of how to combat the fascist onslaught.
Leading up to the protests, APWU NALC leaders organized a perfect storm – of phone calls to Congress people. But Trump is ignoring Congress while he also controls it, so if the Dems gain control of Congress then h will ignore that control. Fascist rule may be consolidated by then.
The NALC has mainly been pre-occupied with its union contract, which just emerged from arbitration. The new contract was little better than the ne NALC members had already rejected.
The nation-wide postal worker demos are the only mass-action arrows in the quiver of the postal labor bureaucracy, and they have fired them. Trump and Musk have given no sign of retreat.
What now? That is the big question.
Postal Workers Demonstrate Nationwide against Trump's Plan to Privatize the Postal Service
Over the past weekend, postal workers across the U.S. held protest demonstrations against the plan of President Trump to have the federal Department of Commerce take over the postal service, leading to its privatization.
Both of the main postal unions, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the National Letter Carriers union (NALC), sponsored the protests, each announcing over 200 actions.
The NALC has not published photos of its demonstrations, but the below pic of at least 500 postal workers demonstrating in Detroit shows a real massive effort. These were mostly letter carriers, but a number of APWU members, who are window clerks or work in the processing plant, also took part in solidarity.
The video below shows Detroit APWU workers picketing, maybe 100 strong, on a cold, wet day March 20, as part of the union's national mobilization.
https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/16119 ... 3yCiDm2UZA
The APWU published many photos of its rallies and pickets from around the country, but only the New York city rally (see photo below) seemed to have over 100 workers. But the large number of demos made an impression on the public.
NY rally:
These demos leave no doubt that a significant section of the over-600,000 postal employees are willing to come out to protest Trump's plans. However, the national news media, as ever run by the big capitalists, would rather salivate at bigger profits Trump's fascism may bring them than support any upwelling of struggle by the working class. No matter how much damage privatization would do,, there was very little coverage. Even in the media oriented to the Democratic Party, alleged friends of postal workers, not much was said.
The Democrats have wept tears over losing the election due to failing to support the working class. But when is their support for the postal workers? Bernie and AOC did not show up for the demos.
Postal workers and the whole working class are now faced with an unprecedented crisis. The Trump-Musk billionaires on a vicious assault on all federal agencies, damaging programs that the working class masses desperately need, including the Department of Education, Medicaid, Social Security and – the Post Office.
Trump and Musk forces are destroying everything they can. Congress is in the hands of the far-right Republicans, while the Democrats, allegedly the opposition, are collapsing, Some Dem leaders call for a surrender to Trump while others are pushing soft protest.
In the postal demos last week, large numbers of postal workers shouted their anger. At the moment they voiced the slogans of the leaderships and little else. “The US mail is not for sale!” These necessary slogans are insufficient. The need to roar: “HEY, HEY, HO, HO! ELON MUSK HAS GOT TO GO!” The NALC did include the forceful phrase “HELL NO!” but that as it for militancy. APWU literature stressed the damage privatization would bring the poor and working-class masses and pointed out the disastrous effects Trump's takeover would have for the workers themselves – loss of union contract and possibly the whole host of worker protections in the contracts. These vital protections could be completely stripped by Trump. Many p[ostal jobs would be eliminated with the loss of contractual no-layoff protection.
No literature at either demo in Detroit showed any serious discussion of how to combat the fascist onslaught.
Leading up to the protests, APWU NALC leaders organized a perfect storm – of phone calls to Congress people. But Trump is ignoring Congress while he also controls it, so if the Dems gain control of Congress then h will ignore that control. Fascist rule may be consolidated by then.
The NALC has mainly been pre-occupied with its union contract, which just emerged from arbitration. The new contract was little better than the ne NALC members had already rejected.
The nation-wide postal worker demos are the only mass-action arrows in the quiver of the postal labor bureaucracy, and they have fired them. Trump and Musk have given no sign of retreat.
What now? That is the big question.
Re: postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
Tim, what should we be looking for in the discussion from Labor Notes supporters that you posted? What relation does it have to what we have been discussing? Do you see this as representative of what you have seen on FB and with discussions with workers?
Also it would be helpful if you explained what your thinking is now about a strike, or about what we should say to workers about it. It’s not just an issue of what will be in this article, but about our own CVO discussion of this. I think that discussion is important, and the draft could be very useful with respect to this. Actually, let’s these points at Monday’s meeting before finalizing a draft.
Well, I am surprised the second draft leaves out the issue of strike altogether, but it is far better to leave it out than to than to overplay it. It’s hardly likely to take place at this time, but this means that the workers are hardly likely to be able to block the immediate steps against the post office. It is going to be a long struggle, with workers suffering very much over maybe months and months before it reaches a certain level. And for such a strike’s success, it would require the overall struggle against Trumpism having reached a certain level. Having the issue of strike in the article would probably mean mainly explaining briefly why the conditions aren’t good for it now, and what this means about how the struggle is going to take place. It’s likely to be a long struggle, with workers suffering many privations before it seriously shakes the Trump administration.
I would like to continue on some points that CVO discussion needs to consider, rather than directly deal with the draft.
With regard to the Democrats, I don’t think that because they have disgraced themselves in the eyes of many workers suffering hardships from the new administration, that they are no longer the largest opposition. The Democratic politicians, the people who support the Democrats or want them to fight or want a better-type of Democratic party, are the main body of the opposition. There needs to be work to build independent organization, but it’s not going to be the main body of the opposition.
On Marxmail, and I presume elsewhere, there are arguments about whether Democrats should be allowed in the “united front” that should be built; they are dreaming of an immediate pure opposition. This lets them avoid the question of how to have the left overcome its crisis.
I think that with respect to Trump, Musk, and the far-right Republicans, the issue is that the bourgeoisie has increasingly supported this, in order to get tax cuts and deregulations and destroy unions, and that is why the Democrats, as a bourgeois party, are so weak in their opposition. I think this shows why they are so weak in their action, and without having to ignore that various Democrats do fight in a way that still has influence among the masses. This raises the issue of the stand of the bourgeoisie, and I think it is important if one is really going to raise the class basis of what is happening.
I also have some doubt that the repetition of the term “fascist” in itself can cement an argument. I don’t see the point of arguments such as “if the Dems gain control of Congress then [Trump] will ignore that control. Fascist rule may be consolidated by then.” I do think it’s possible that Trump will intervene to affect the composition of Congress, and this would be crossing the Rubicon. But where’s the proof in advance that this will happen? People are being convinced of what’s taking place now, with the authoritarianism right and left, and with people being hurt now.
Perhaps though the issue is what does one want to say in an article. Looking at the ending, I feel that without the strike, the spirit has gone out of the ending. But I don’t see why that should have to be. What happened to things like continuing to protest Trump, to solidarity with other unions and other fronts of struggle against Trump, and to being prepared for a long struggle? Instead, there is just the question “What now?” (And maybe the implication that the unions won’t call any more demonstrations.)
If the problem is finding some way to definitely ensure that disasters like the privatization of the post office will be stopped, then it’s true, we don’t have a an answer. It might happen. That’s horrible to contemplate. It is one of a number of horrible things that are possible, or are even taking place at present. But it doesn’t mean the struggle is over. And, as far as possible, we have to prepare for even such disasters.
Also it would be helpful if you explained what your thinking is now about a strike, or about what we should say to workers about it. It’s not just an issue of what will be in this article, but about our own CVO discussion of this. I think that discussion is important, and the draft could be very useful with respect to this. Actually, let’s these points at Monday’s meeting before finalizing a draft.
Well, I am surprised the second draft leaves out the issue of strike altogether, but it is far better to leave it out than to than to overplay it. It’s hardly likely to take place at this time, but this means that the workers are hardly likely to be able to block the immediate steps against the post office. It is going to be a long struggle, with workers suffering very much over maybe months and months before it reaches a certain level. And for such a strike’s success, it would require the overall struggle against Trumpism having reached a certain level. Having the issue of strike in the article would probably mean mainly explaining briefly why the conditions aren’t good for it now, and what this means about how the struggle is going to take place. It’s likely to be a long struggle, with workers suffering many privations before it seriously shakes the Trump administration.
I would like to continue on some points that CVO discussion needs to consider, rather than directly deal with the draft.
With regard to the Democrats, I don’t think that because they have disgraced themselves in the eyes of many workers suffering hardships from the new administration, that they are no longer the largest opposition. The Democratic politicians, the people who support the Democrats or want them to fight or want a better-type of Democratic party, are the main body of the opposition. There needs to be work to build independent organization, but it’s not going to be the main body of the opposition.
On Marxmail, and I presume elsewhere, there are arguments about whether Democrats should be allowed in the “united front” that should be built; they are dreaming of an immediate pure opposition. This lets them avoid the question of how to have the left overcome its crisis.
I think that with respect to Trump, Musk, and the far-right Republicans, the issue is that the bourgeoisie has increasingly supported this, in order to get tax cuts and deregulations and destroy unions, and that is why the Democrats, as a bourgeois party, are so weak in their opposition. I think this shows why they are so weak in their action, and without having to ignore that various Democrats do fight in a way that still has influence among the masses. This raises the issue of the stand of the bourgeoisie, and I think it is important if one is really going to raise the class basis of what is happening.
I also have some doubt that the repetition of the term “fascist” in itself can cement an argument. I don’t see the point of arguments such as “if the Dems gain control of Congress then [Trump] will ignore that control. Fascist rule may be consolidated by then.” I do think it’s possible that Trump will intervene to affect the composition of Congress, and this would be crossing the Rubicon. But where’s the proof in advance that this will happen? People are being convinced of what’s taking place now, with the authoritarianism right and left, and with people being hurt now.
Perhaps though the issue is what does one want to say in an article. Looking at the ending, I feel that without the strike, the spirit has gone out of the ending. But I don’t see why that should have to be. What happened to things like continuing to protest Trump, to solidarity with other unions and other fronts of struggle against Trump, and to being prepared for a long struggle? Instead, there is just the question “What now?” (And maybe the implication that the unions won’t call any more demonstrations.)
If the problem is finding some way to definitely ensure that disasters like the privatization of the post office will be stopped, then it’s true, we don’t have a an answer. It might happen. That’s horrible to contemplate. It is one of a number of horrible things that are possible, or are even taking place at present. But it doesn’t mean the struggle is over. And, as far as possible, we have to prepare for even such disasters.
Re: postal workers demonstrate against trymp's privatization plans
after the dmlsg meeting yesterday (see the report, to be out soon) and reading that report, I wish to clarify one of my main concerns. When I say the postal workers are not ready for a strike, that does not mean they will not go on strike if the po is taken over. They actually may, even though they are not talking of it now, It will be a major shock and they may have no other way in mind of being able to fight back, so they may strike tho not prepared to do so and this could be very difficult and prone to a major defeat, yet it would be hard to tell the workers not to do it, if they suddenly decided they had to. They have a picture of what a strike is, and I believe it is the commonplace strike of the recent past -- go to a picket line, get strike pay, try to hold out -- but this will be way more tumultuous than that, and we are not prepared, even for the commonplace brand of strike. When the workers see their wages, rights, even their jobs stripped from them, they are then, suddenly, going to want to fight. it is also possible that they will not see striking as possible, given the legal penalties and also th nature of the union leaderships.
Presently it is a felony for postal workers to go on strike. If the post office is taken away from the Board of Governors management and given to the Department of Commerce, presumably this law will not apply, but it is hard for me to believe that the Trumpers will not attempt to extend the application of this law to the newly-moved postal workforce. This is one of many concrete questions that will suddenly arise.
Another is, what will the labor bureaucracies of the unions do when suddenly they have no income and no legal authority with regard to the postal system? This will engender many schemes of all sorts, with those originating from the leaderships leading to dubious or bad results for the workers. This will take place with the main organized forms of communication in the hands of the bureaucrats (as, now, the rank and file hears nothing of the debates that must be going on among the officials over the ongoing crisis, nothing beyond the occasional declaration by marc dimondstein).
just some thoughts.
Presently it is a felony for postal workers to go on strike. If the post office is taken away from the Board of Governors management and given to the Department of Commerce, presumably this law will not apply, but it is hard for me to believe that the Trumpers will not attempt to extend the application of this law to the newly-moved postal workforce. This is one of many concrete questions that will suddenly arise.
Another is, what will the labor bureaucracies of the unions do when suddenly they have no income and no legal authority with regard to the postal system? This will engender many schemes of all sorts, with those originating from the leaderships leading to dubious or bad results for the workers. This will take place with the main organized forms of communication in the hands of the bureaucrats (as, now, the rank and file hears nothing of the debates that must be going on among the officials over the ongoing crisis, nothing beyond the occasional declaration by marc dimondstein).
just some thoughts.