Take a look at this collection of photos to recollect all of the work we did collectively in 2020 to save lots of the publish workplace
This win—which is in no small half due to the greater than 1.5 million MoveOn members who signed petitions, rallied, referred to as Congress, hung indicators and stickers, and extra—will save the USPS roughly $50 billion over the subsequent decade and safe family-sustaining union jobs for 550,000 public servants!2 And it comes from years of grassroots strain to make sure the important providers offered by the USPS that assist everybody, regardless of their ZIP code, stick round, delivering our medicines, our ballots, and a lot extra with out interruption, even throughout a world pandemic. It’s a proof level that individuals energy can produce outcomes!
The flexibility to vote by mail was important for the 2020 elections throughout the pandemic. Trump appointed Louis DeJoy, a political donor and crony, to the place of postmaster basic, the place DeJoy led blatant efforts to undermine the publish workplace and affect the election by slowing mail, eradicating mail-sorting machines, and warning states to not depend on the publish workplace to ship ballots.3
However MoveOn members spoke out and took motion alongside our allies. At greater than 800 publish places of work throughout the nation, MoveOn members confirmed up—masked and socially distanced—in solidarity with postal employees in every single place and to defend the important public establishment and our democracy from Trump and Postmaster Normal DeJoy. This strain compelled DeJoy to cease a few of his operational modifications of their tracks. And in October, mere weeks earlier than Election Day, the USPS lastly agreed to reverse lots of the harmful selections.4 Collectively, we ensured each vote was counted. MoveOn partnered with a broad spectrum of progressive and voting rights allies to demand state and native officers increase entry to voting rights.
Collectively, MoveOn members:
- Collected almost 1.5 million petition signatures.
- Led over 800 rallies with allies at publish places of work throughout the nation. Cher even attended one!
- Made hundreds of telephone calls to elected officers.
- Put up over 330,000 “We ❤️ Postal Employees” stickers on mailboxes.
The primary success was blocking DeJoy’s sinister plot to intrude with our election. This week marks a second victory, with Congress and President Biden delivering long-term stability to the Postal Service to make sure it may possibly proceed to supply service throughout the nation, particularly as we head into the subsequent election season.
We powered this victory not solely with strain on lawmakers but additionally by turning out in report numbers to create Democratic majorities within the Home and Senate, which have delivered to safe the way forward for USPS.
Subsequent up: We want these elected officers to proceed to ship and maintain everybody concerned in Trump’s disastrous administration accountable. And for the USPS, there are such a lot of methods they will increase their providers, comparable to postal banking. Submit places of work—already in almost each neighborhood within the U.S.— used to supply low-cost banking providers. Over 100 million individuals don’t presently have entry to inexpensive monetary providers, and this resolution would ease the burden whereas we proceed to emerge from the pandemic.5
On the similar time, we’ll additionally maintain working to push the USPS to affect its fleet—which might be a major transfer in decreasing our carbon air pollution.
This victory reminds us of what’s attainable once we work collectively to create a greater future for everybody. All of us have an opportunity to make use of our energy once more this November to elect individuals who will ship for our communities and maintain advocating for what we consider in. This complete marketing campaign began as a result of somebody began a petition, and it gave individuals who agreed a chance to have their voices heard. You can start a petition here anytime on an issue in your neighborhood or on something that affects everyone nationwide.
Thanks for all you do.
Sources:
1. Tweet by President Biden, April 6, 2022
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1511805701827579906
2. “U.S. Home to Vote to Present Postal Service With $50 Billion in Reduction,” U.S. Information & World Report, February 7, 2022
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-02-07/u-s-house-to-vote-to-provide-postal-service-with-50-billion-in-relief
3. “Postal chief defends modifications, denies ‘sabotaging’ election,” The Related Press, August 24, 2020
https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-election-2020-ap-top-news-politics-us-news-dc647214b5fc91cc29e776d8f4a4accf
4. “Postal Service Agrees To Reverse Service Cutbacks Forward Of Election,” Nationwide Public Radio, October 15, 2020
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/15/923960405/postal-service-agrees-to-reverse-service-cutbacks-ahead-of-election
5. “Postal Banking,” American Postal Employees Union, accessed April 4, 2022
https://apwu.org/postal-banking
