Cape-area postal workers lobby public support

The union representing postal clerks, mail sorters and maintenance staff staged an informational picket Tuesday at the post office at 320 Frederick St. in Cape Girardeau.

About a dozen members of the American Postal Workers Union passed out flyers and talked with customers asking them to contact 8th District U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Salem, Mo.) and demand he support $25 billion in emergency funding for the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service.

President Donald Trump has asserted the Postal Service is poorly run, loses billions of dollars each year and has an unfair relationship with Amazon.

Greg Davidson of Cape Girardeau, president of APWU Local 4088, representing more than 80 postal workers locally, suggested the president apparently doesn’t understand the agency’s economics.

Davidson points to a 2006 law requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees until the year 2081.

From left, Postal Service employees Vernon Davidson and Cody Davidson talk to customer Tom Ellison at an informational picket Tuesday at the post office in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

“I’ve never heard (the president) mention this (requirement) in all of his rhetoric,” said Davidson, a window clerk at the Frederick Street branch and a 23-year USPS veteran.

Davidson calls the health care pre-funding an “onus” and if it were lifted, the Postal Service would be in the black.

“We would be, yes, and we would see millions of dollars in profit,” Davidson said.

The USPS, according to reporting by the Washington Post, has bigger problems than paying for health benefits — reporting the volume of first-class mail has dropped every year since 2011 due to the rise of the internet.

Overall, the Postal Service reported a loss of $8.8 billion in 2019.

Mark Baker of Jackson, president of the AFL-CIO affiliated Southeast Missouri Central Labor Council, said financial “starving” of the Postal Service is deliberate plan by the Trump administration.

“It’s a long con, in my opinion,” said Baker, who has headed the local council since 2005.

Baker stopped just short of suggesting the president is trying to eliminate the agency charged with delivering mail and packages to every location in the country.

“(Trump)’s goal is force the (USPS), founded in 1775, to be so inefficient that the private sector becomes appealing,” he said.

Robert Stevenson, Local 4088 vice president, said no U.S. president can push the Postal Service out of business.

“We’re here and we’re going to continue to be here,” said Stevenson, a clerk and general “expediter” at the Frederick Street branch.

Acknowledging letter volume is way down, Stevenson said the other major part of the agency’s business is way up.

“I’ve watched package volume explode,” said Stephenson, a Cape Girardeau resident and 34-year Postal Service employee.

“It’s like Christmas every day of the week around here because of the convenience of people shopping from home,” he added.

In 2019, the Postal Service reported a $1.3 billion increase in revenue from shipping and package delivery, a 6.1% hike from 2018.

Davidson said the need for an immediate boost in USPS funding is critical to continued operations.

“COVID has hit (our business) hard, even locally,” said Davidson, who added that, among other things, the Postal Service is using decades-old mail delivery vehicles that are literally falling apart.

“I had a (letter) carrier tell me just a few days ago that the door on his (delivery) truck fell off,” he said.

The APWU has endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.