Take a look at some reasons why "big business" wants to sell your Postal Service--it's not to provide universal mail service to you--the customer, but to fill their pockets with big  profits.

* If the USPS were privatized, four of the Postal Service's six major product lines below would qualify as a Fortune 500 company on their own:
   Correspondence & transactions ... $26.9 billion business
   Business advertising ... $15.6 billion business
   Expedited delivery ... $3.7 billion business
   Standard package delivery ... $2.4 billion business
   International mail ... $1.2 billion business
   Publications delivery ... $1.9 billion business
 
* The Postal Service handles 40 percent of the world's mail volume--Japan is second with 8 percent.
 
* In 1995, the Postal Service processed over 180 billion pieces of mail--580 million pieces a day reaching 125 million addresses.
 
* The Postal Service's 32-cent first-class mail rate is second only to Canada's.
 
* The Postal Service has a $3.2 billion transportation network consisting of over 200,000 vehicles.
 
* The Postal Service owns 6,865 buildings with 168 million square feet and lease 27,437 buildings with 89 million square feet.
 
* If the Postal Service were a private company, it would be the 12th largest business in the US and the 33rd largest business in the world.
 
* The Postal Service had revenues in 1995 of $54 billion--that's bigger than Coca-Cola, Xerox, and Eastman Kodak combined.
 
* The Postal Service is the nation's largest civilian employer, with over 753,000 career employees.  That's more workers on American soil than GM, Ford, and Chrysler combined.
 
* The Postal Service staffs almost 40,000 post offices and retail units.
 
* The Postal Service serves 8 million small business customers.
 
* The Postal Service has the world's largest and most sophisticated cash transaction system in the world.
 

Postal Customer: What postal privatization would mean for you.
 
Some people want to sell off pieces of the US Postal Service to private companies. If you're wondering how that would affect you, consider the following:
 
Postal Stamp Prices.
You might hear the "privatizers" claim they can provide mail service more cheaply than the US Postal Service. It's true that, occasionally, the Postal Service has to increase the price of stamps to keep up with postal costs. But stamp prices have stayed within the rate of inflation--and remember, the Postal Service is self-funded--it doesn't use any taxpayer money to supplement its income.

Universal Mail Service.
The truth is, no one really knows how much it would cost to mail a letter if it were done by private companies. It would probably depend on how far your letter was going. Right now, you can mail a letter anywhere--within the same town or from Florida to Alaska or Hawaii to New York--for the same 32 cents.

Rural and Inner-City Delivery.
If you live in a rural area, it wouldn't be profitable for a company to offer you service unless they charged a very high fee; and private companies may be unwilling to operate in inner-city areas. Because the Postal Service doesn't have to turn a profit, just break even, it can provide service to every community in America.

The Security of Your Mail.
If the Postal Service is privatized, there could be dozens of private companies, so your letter might be handled by several different businesses--and who knows how many people would have direct access to your private mail box. If a letter were lost or stolen, who would you turn to for help? Right now, mail fraud is a federal crime. Who will protect you if the Postal Service is no more?

How to Stop Privatization.
Postal workers don't want the Postal Service to be privatized; we think it would ruin service for our customers. That's why we're demonstrating today--we want you to know about the threats to your mail service. We must work together to put a stop to the efforts of greedy profiteers who want to skim a profit off your mail service by buying the USPS. Call or write your Congressional representatives in Washington, DC and tell them to act against any attempts at postal outsourcing, contracting out and privatization.
 
 

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This site was created by Jack Ball.
Please address all comments and corrections to him at apwuqcy@adams.net