This March Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act after 15 years of effort by labor and allies to fund and strengthen the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The Act includes crucial objectives of postal worker unions: It ensures the USPS is financially stable, ends the destructive pre-funding retiree health care benefits mandate, and guarantees six-day delivery reforms.
The USPS is preparing to replace its aging vehicle fleet. According to the United Auto Workers (UAW), which supports the transition to electric vehicles, “The next generation postal vehicle is a huge opportunity to use public money to build a sustainable future.” However, the USPS has awarded a contract for $6 billion for the next generation of postal vehicles to a company that plans to move production from a union plant in Michigan to anti-union, “right-to-work” South Carolina. Further, the contract provides for fossil fuel internal combustion vehicles rather than clean-energy electric ones, a plan that experts say will accelerate global warming.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) is circulating a petition that urges Oshkosh Defense and the USPS “to ensure that production of these vehicle promotes good union jobs and a cleaner future.”
Sign the UAW Petition here!