VIDEO: ‘The U.S. Mail is not for sale,’ declare protesters at Westwood Village Post Office

1:21 PM: As previewed in our daily list, the National Association of Letter Carriers (postal workers’ union) called for rallies across the country today to oppose any attempts to dismantle or privatize the U.S. Postal Service, and the regional gathering for Seattle is at the Westwood Village Post Office. We’re there and so are more than 100 protesters.

1:43 PM: The speeches are concluding – along with chants such as “The US Mail is not for sale’ – and they’re planning a march around the Post Office building.

1:54 PM: They’re actually marching around the Westwood Village perimeter, on the sidewalk. Video when we’re back at HQ.

2:58 PM: First, here’s that video, as the march left the Post Office vicinity:

The marchers walked east along Trenton, then south on 25th, turning west on Barton, and that’s when we had to move on. Earlier, speakers ranged from a Westwood Village postal worker to regional labor leaders, plus union-solidarity songs from the Seattle Labor Chorus:

(We panned the crowd toward the start of that video, as they ringed the Post Office’s customer lot.) As for what to do next, speakers suggested focusing on members of Congress as those with the power to “save the Postal Service.” The message was a mix of saving the Postal Service and also reminding people that USPS employees have been working without a contract.

HD March 23, 2025 (2:16 pm)

Thanks for covering this. Great turnout in the rain, crowd got larger as it went on.

Lagartija Nick March 23, 2025 (2:23 pm)

Remember folks, the postal service is one of the few things mandated by the constitution. Bravo to these fine people!

Sheila G March 23, 2025 (2:36 pm)

Thanks for this great reminder! And let’s all raise a glass to Benjamin Franklin, who helped pave the way.
Mike March 23, 2025 (2:45 pm)

Oof, you need to read the Constitution again…The U.S. Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 (the Postal Clause), grants Congress the power “to establish Post Offices and post Roads” but does not mandate the existence of a postal service. This clause gives Congress the authority to create and regulate a postal system but does not require it to maintain one indefinitely. They can even discontinue it.
- Lagartija Nick March 23, 2025 (4:56 pm)
  
  I think you need to look up the meaning of the word “shall” as it pertains to the constitution and how the courts have classically interpreted it over the years.
  - Daniel March 23, 2025 (11:36 pm)
    
    “shall have power to XYZ” is different from “shall XYZ”. Privatizing the post office would be a huge mistake, but it’s not clear it would be unconstitutional. It wouldn’t be unilaterally possible by the executive branch because federal law (not the constitution) mandates that USPS delivers mail. That’s assuming Trump follows federal laws on this.
- Miss Dictionary Over Here March 24, 2025 (12:05 pm)
  
  A mandate is the authority to be able to do something.
- Todd Miller March 24, 2025 (1:37 pm)
  
  Take your Chumster to the Dumpster

K March 23, 2025 (2:37 pm)

The USPS is a public service like the Fire Department, schools, or interstate highways. It doesn’t need to be profitable or even self-sustaining. It should remain a public serive and not a private company to be used, stripped of assets, and shuttered by private equity as we’ve seen with so many other private businesses.

Big 5 Guy March 23, 2025 (3:22 pm)

Several nations have privatized their postal services, including the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, etc. We should move it into the future as well and follow their lead.

k March 23, 2025 (4:04 pm)

Those countries have far more checks on private enterprises than we do in America. It would look different here.
- Big 5 Guy March 23, 2025 (6:05 pm)
  
  U.S. space travel has been largely privatized to great success. It’s come a LONG way in recent years and the USA is leading the way again. NASA still exists and handles the organizational, training, and administrative tasks very well. Partial privatization of the USPS with tight government oversight could see the same success. Fedex, Amazon, and UPS ship more efficiently.
  - David B March 23, 2025 (7:09 pm)
    
    Why does NASA even exist after going to the moon, space shuttles and international space station. If they went into launching commercial satellites, that is, trying to make money, then that is a business but that’s not their purpose. It seems like they are just a big government subsidy for Space X, as such they should stop it. If Space X can’t stand on its own, stop subsidizing it so much with government aid – right!
    - k March 24, 2025 (9:20 am)
      
      NASA’s mission is about more than going to the moon. The point of the space station and space shuttle are to be able to do science while in space. The billionaires have their weird space tourism fetishes, but tourism has never been part of NASA’s mission. Unfortunately someone figured out which phrases to use on applications so that one of those tourism companies could start getting science and defense contracts, and now the taxpayers are funding the exploding rockets with no accountability for safety or proof that they’re even accomplishing anything required.
  - Shawn March 23, 2025 (7:15 pm)
    
    Spacex rockets tend to blow up more than teslas, which is saying something. It’s not a serious replacement for a real space program, it’s the side hobby of a megalomaniacal billionaire and should be shut down. The idea of them replacing anything nasa does is a joke.
  - k March 23, 2025 (7:15 pm)
    
    SpaceX blows up their rockets at a WAY higher rate than NASA ever did, all on the taxpayers’ nickel. That comparison absolutely makes me want to keep the post office public. Also, “tight government oversight” is not really what the US government is going for with the privatization push. FedEx routinely throws my packages in the bushes or delivers them to a neighbor two blocks away whose address isn’t even a little similar to mine, so I don’t think those are great examples either. UPS does get it right, but is not required by law to deliver to every address in the country.
  - 5 Guys March 24, 2025 (7:45 am)
    
    I love it when my government uses my tax money to subsidize the private research for a corporation run by the richest bum on the planet. Then that bum can take that research/knowledge and (try to) resell it to me in another crappy product instead of using it to improve it for the populace. In fact that bum might even use their tech and influence to help instigate warfare and/or attack the fabric of US democracy. Can’t wait for the “trip to Mars next year” where rich techies will build a “totally for the normal person utopia and not a slave colony in international waters/space” because they steer our space exploration now. You’re getting conned like we all are now, except you want it.
|West Marge March 23, 2025 (4:42 pm)

Which would create postal deserts. Once privatization happens, the mandate to make sure everyone gets their mail disappears.
David B. March 23, 2025 (4:54 pm)

Do you know any details about these other countries that privatized their mail/parcel/other service or are you just hear about it on a biased media outlet. Tell me, how compatible are the services to the United States, do they have lots of rural areas, do they have private delivery services like Amazon, UPS. Have the majority of counties in the world removed all of these services from any government involvement? The UK didn’t, they split it. I’m not saying don’t change anything, but privatizing is not some magic thing. Should all roads be privatized? Why not?
Actually Mike March 23, 2025 (5:49 pm)

Privatizing USPS is a very bad idea, and one that would certainly cost us all more in the long run. USPS already has the infrastructure, (most of) the personnel, and the business systems needed to deliver mail efficiently across the country. As K has noted, mail delivery is a public good and should be viewed and funded as such–rather than turning USPS into yet another trough for greedy snouts to root around in. Read up on studies about privatization of public services–they pretty much all come to the same conclusion: Solid waste and recycling, OK–everything else, bad idea.
CAM March 23, 2025 (6:16 pm)

A very fast Google search shows me that at least one of those moves has been a disaster for the public and for post office employees. But sure, I guess when looking at everything else happening in the world today (greater economic disparity, higher health costs, higher food costs, higher housing costs (by higher meaning at a rate faster than income increases for non-executives), more fires, worse hurricanes, more weather disasters in general, more drought, famine, genocide, and dictators, I could go on but I won’t) if that’s what “modernity” means, privatizing public services fits right in.

KT March 23, 2025 (3:50 pm)

Very brave people…Hopefully the manchild in the oval office and his sheeple won’t try to harm them or seek retribution. Scary what is happening to the rule of law in this country

Shawn March 23, 2025 (7:11 pm)

We should probably just do postal banking. Basic trustworthy savings accounts for people that don’t trust banks, a small but steady revenue source for the postal service so it can continue to provide critical mail delivery services, and takes a bit of business away from big banks that don’t need it. Everyone wins. No privitized postal system is going to be bothering to deliver to rural and undeserved communities, so that’s just not a serious option for serious people. It’s the pipe dream of lunatics that have no business in government.

Rhonda March 23, 2025 (7:15 pm)

“Why send a letter in the mail for .43 cents that takes a week to get there when you can send an email instantly for free?” – Jay Leno

Iris March 23, 2025 (11:46 pm)

Because my adult child who is 27 years old enjoys when his mom sends them cards in the mail! My adult child doesn’t live in my basement or garage and lives independently elsewhere. Also I enjoy buying cards at the dollar store and send them to my friend, child and even my extremely old husband in the mail, people in my life are worthy of 43 cents for a stamp and buying a personal card to knowing that it is one way to bring joy to them and another way to show my appreciation to them. I also show other ways of appreciation.
- Rhonda March 24, 2025 (12:21 am)
  
  Iris, I email my 87 year-old mom every day and have real-time correspondence with her. We send photos back and forth and E-cards. No matter what happens with the USPS you’ll still be able to send cards to your son, just as you do now. But it’s way past time to take the USPS into the 21st century.
  - What? March 24, 2025 (9:07 am)
    
    What does “take the USPS into the 21st century” even mean? Do you mean by dismantling it and going for privatization? Is that what you want for them to bring the USPS into the 21st century? Do you want them to improve the USPS by making them better equipped in the modern day?I don’t believe you even know what you want. If you do want USPS privatized, then you also want to be controlled by corporations who do not care about you. The reason USPS does not make a profit is because it is run *for you* and not to make some rich jerk even more rich.People who fall for the privatization of mail are privileged sell outs who can’t respect what they have till it’s gone. Ironic that the people who want to make America great *again* don’t even know what it is that made it so in the first place.
  - Lauren March 24, 2025 (9:19 pm)
    
    The post office is in the 21st century. Just because you don’t enjoy sending and receiving mail doesn’t mean others don’t.
CarDriver March 24, 2025 (6:26 am)

Rhonda. There are many of us who are not addicted and glued to electronic devices. We’ve discovered that holding and reading something that doesn’t need to be plugged in or break/crack if dropped is mighty nice.

WestSide 4 life March 23, 2025 (7:19 pm)

Don’t agree that privatization is the answer, but I do agree something needs to be done. Losing 6.5 billion in 2023 and 9.5.billion in 2024 is unacceptable. At some point, accountability must be a priority.

CAM March 23, 2025 (8:49 pm)

Do you look at the budgets for the fire department and police and military as “losing money?” The government is not a money making operation and is not there to turn a profit. It is there to provide services to the people who live in this country and those services cost money. It is far more cost effective and efficient for the government to provide those services to all people in the US than it would be for any private organization.
- WestSide 4 life March 23, 2025 (9:24 pm)
  
  Apples and Oranges..Unlike Police, Fire and Military which are tax payer funded, USPS was changed in the 70s to be self funded through the revenue from postage. Since then it has consistently lost billions. I am not in favor of privatization but it’s obvious that this model does not work. USPS needs to find a way to serve customers while being accountable.
  - Concerned March 23, 2025 (11:42 pm)
    
    Wasn’t the last time USPS didn’t turn a profit was 2006, not “the 70s”? And wasn’t that the time they became obligated to pre-fund pension plans unlike any other public or private entity?
    - N in Seattle March 24, 2025 (1:01 am)
      
      Yes, that is correct.
      
      Unlike any other entity — and certainly unlike private corporations — the USPS was forced to pre-fund pensions for *75* years. In other words, they had to put out money for the pensions of workers who hadn’t even been born yet.
      
      No wonder their books didn’t balance any more.
Ray West March 25, 2025 (12:02 pm)

The Westside 4 LIfe – The USPS was solvent until 2006 when Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its employees’ post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. Republicans have long wanted to privatize USPS, and this was designed to do that. This burden did not apply to any other federal agency or private corporation. Now Republicans are dismantling other government agencies like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. from the inside out to collapse them.

CPD March 23, 2025 (9:11 pm)

Privatization comes at the expense of the consumer, worker, and community. Usps is necessary for those who live in rural areas (they cannot afford internet and many are not in service range), small businesses (who would be left to the greedy whim of private postal services and will shrink in result), and those who rely on their other services. Comparing the loss in 2023 (6.5b) to 2024 (9.5b) seems like a lot, but it is separated between controllable and uncontrollable loss. Controllable loss went down from 2.2b (2023) to 1.8b (2024). Uncontrollable loss went up but that is from things happening in the real world outside of usps’s control, like inflation. In 2020 usps had 9.2b loss, I feel this fluctuation is not as pressing nor as scary as it may seem. The usps, first and foremost, is a civic service and is a massive economic contributor in the customers it services (they help ship for businesses, big and small). The last time usps had net income instead of net loss was in 2022 when PRSA was enacted. Maybe we should repeat that and give usps more funding.

tim March 23, 2025 (10:07 pm)

We need privatization and have needed it for a long time. Look at the ws bridge, or the 99 tunnel, or ws light rail, its all getting to expensive for taxpayers to pay the bill on overpriced projects that create deficits for our state, or push national debt to the moon.

Ivan Weiss March 24, 2025 (7:27 am)

We need privatization like we need more COVID.
my two cents March 24, 2025 (8:59 am)

How do you manage the rate that the private sector will charge? You used WS Bridge as an example – in your view, that should have been built by private sector – which would result in how much of a toll? What safeguards to prevent the private postal service from doubling the rate – or even tripling the rate if you want your mail a day earlier because of previous ‘service adjustments’?
- Ivan Weiss March 24, 2025 (9:18 am)
  
  Yeah, exactly. Raise your hands if you have experienced “Rates subject to change without notice.”
k March 24, 2025 (9:26 am)

You don’t want your infrastructure to be privatized. Look what’s happened with railroads for the last 150 years. How many people are stuck with the same two telecom companies because we let them build and own the infrastructure? Ask anyone in a state with privatized utilities how that is going. The government, as you pointed out, is not trying to extract more from you than what things cost. Private companies will find a way to get that, and then some. Infrastructure is not optional, so you’re stuck paying whatever they’re charging, because regulations on those companies is “communism.”

Rosey March 24, 2025 (6:23 am)

What an exhausting thread of comments. The USPS has been a valued public service and given its scale does so at a loss absorbable and respectful of GDP output. Privatization would have an impact on cost and further spiral rural areas into being even more difficult to live in.But with comments above championing privatization, and this fight feeling like pushing a boulder uphill, I’m questioning why Americans deserve anything at this point beyond the consequences of their own actions.

Scarlett March 24, 2025 (7:52 am)

Private or public? They work in tandem, one gets the public approval for a blank check and hands it off to the “private” sector which then proceeds to gouge the public with “unavoidable” cost overruns. This is how is how things work, from the military industrial complex to everything else, with the most politically connected chosen companies getting the contracts – and lately one company’s shareholders getting protection from the Oval Office. But a bouncing 401K salves all political and moral wounds, doesn’t it? Eye-ball roll.