Posted on 22 April 2012 by @kevin_seal
video by DR
On 2012′s “Tax Day,” Tuesday, April 17, Occupy Oakland protesters joined union members at the main Oakland post office on 7th Street to rally against proposed austerity measures. 3,700 US Postal Service branches and over 200,000 jobs will disappear this year if these measures are not blocked.
Led by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the American Postal Workers Union, the protesters seek to protect the vital infrastructure which the USPS represents. Privatizing a crucial service like the Post Office not only eliminates hundreds of thousands of jobs, but moves the power to share written communication away from an accountable, public-facing, more open system and into the hands of unaccountable global corporations like FedEx and the United Parcel Service, which charge significantly higher rates.
As Michael _______ explains in this video, the mainstream media reports of the US Postal Service’s financial woes are distorted by some under-reported facts. Much of the financial stress is due to the US Congress’s insistence that the USPS pay its future pension costs well ahead of schedule, which in turn is forcing the USPS into bankruptcy.