USPS employs veterans at three times the national rate, but the White House wants to slash these jobs — and our benefits.
If you’re looking for a way to honor veterans, here’s one: protect the U.S. Postal Service.
I’m a veteran from a family of veterans. After serving in the Marine Corps, I got a good-paying postal job that put me on a solid path to financial security. Now I lead the Detroit Area Local for the American Postal Workers Union. Our 1,500 members include many veterans, some of whom I served with myself.
Across the country, nearly 113,000 veterans now serve as postal workers. With former military members accounting for over 18 percent of our workforce, the Postal Service employs vets at three times their share of the national workforce.
Why? For one thing, military values like hard work, showing up on time, and taking pride in your work set you up perfectly for postal jobs.
For another, USPS gives veterans like myself preferential hiring treatment. Disabled vets, like many I work with in Detroit, get special consideration too. And once they get here, they get generous medical leave and benefits, including wounded warriors leave, among other hard-earned benefits won by our union.
Unfortunately, these secure jobs for veterans are now under attack.
A White House report has called for selling off the public mail service to private, for-profit corporations. And a Trump administration task force has called for slashing postal jobs and services for customers.
In particular, they want to eliminate our collective bargaining rights, which would jeopardize all those benefits we’ve won for veterans and other employees. They also want to cut delivery days, close local post offices, and raise prices, which would hurt customers.
This cost-cutting could also threaten another valuable benefit for service members: deeply discounted shipping rates on packages they get overseas. Currently, shipping to U.S. military bases in other countries costs the same as a domestic shipment, and USPS offers cost-free packing supplies to the folks who send these care packages.
Instead of slashing and burning the USPS, we need to be expanding and strengthening it.
One idea is to let post offices expand into low-cost financial services. Veterans are four times more likely than the national average to use payday lenders for short-term loans, which typically charge exorbitant interest rates.
But if post offices could offer affordable and reliable check cashing, ATM, bill payment, and money transfer services, we could generate all kinds of new revenue — while protecting vets and their communities from predatory lenders.
From discounting care packages to employing disabled veterans, our Postal Service plays an important part in the lives of our service members. USPS does good by Americans who’ve dedicated a portion of their lives to armed service, and by the millions of Americans who rely on them.
I hope you’ll join me in applauding these veterans — and the postal service. Let’s build the USPS up, not tear it down.
By Keith Combs
Keith Combs is a 30-year postal worker and president of the Detroit District Area Local of the American Postal Workers Union. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org
many people in this county Vets, or not, understand what hell is like. USPS is a federal
business, not a public hand out. MY great grand father was a Vet, and a Mailman. My grandfather lost his life during world war # 2. My father was a Vet in Korea, and Panama. MY half brothers were both in the service. I was shot quarter an
inch from my heart while hunting at age 13. I was lucky and worked till 58 years old.
I spent 22.5 years of my life being a mailman. The truth is like the movie a ” few good
men ” YOU don’t need a uniform or metals to have honor!.
I notice the new Vets seem very angry.
They all use the PTSD card and act like NUTS.
One guy made it 6 months as a CCA.
Then moved to management.
Dude is straight up Whacked!
I can say one thing for sure I shipped a package to the Philippines and it made it there 6 weeks later. I think they use caribou to transport it once it gets to Manila 😄
if ur not a veteran u have no idea, its like putting u on a different route plus a hour bump u don’t know, way worse than that, u have no idea!!!
How many years did you serve in the military?
The postal service pretty much gets the military”rejects”….the veteran who just got by with no ambition…. most are trying to work the system and get full disability even though they are perfectly healthy… that’s the way it is at our plant.
Honorable attempt to save The Postal Service but it is what it is, is just a matter of time. I worked 33 years in various capacities, last 5 years EAS-25 Manager Maintenance and I can tell you not all Veterans fit your narrative. A majority of the Veterans use that VA “card” to get out of assignments, make every attempt to work the system.