Mark Dimondstein, APWU’s president, described the atmosphere in the room as Sanders spoke as “electric.”
“People were thrilled, excited,” he said. When introducing Sanders, Dimonstein said, “There is one candidate for president of the United States that stands head and shoulders above the others as a true friend and champion of postal employees and all U.S. workers.”
As a senator, Sanders has proven to be a thorn in the side of other lawmakers looking to assuage the various parochial interests of postal management, unions and customers. Hillary Clinton’s most formidable challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination has said “providing fewer services and poorer quality is not the way to save the Postal Service,” and has spoken out against job cuts at the agency, arguing “good-paying postal jobs” can help protect the middle-class in local economies.
In the last Congress, Sanders introduced the Postal Service Protection Act, which won the support of unions like APWU. The legislation would have completely repealed the prefunding requirement and preserved six-day delivery standards. It also would have reinstated overnight delivery, which would in turn have protected processing plant closures. The bill also attempted to grow revenue by expanding business opportunities at the agency.
Thirty of Sanders’ Democratic Senate colleagues signed on to the bill as cosponsors, who preferred the measure to the bipartisan, USPS-backed bill authored by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Sanders continued his legislative push earlier this year, when he led a coalition of 85 senators in a symbolic vote voicing support for restoring delivery standards that the Postal Service had cut to enable more plant closures. He has also played a key role in blocking President Obama’s nominees to serve on the USPS board of governors over concerns they plan to further degrade USPS services.
Currently, just three of the nine board positions are filled, and the terms of two of those remaining will expire in December.
On Wednesday, Sanders reiterated his call for USPS to expand its offerings beyond just mail and package delivery.
“At a time when more than 68 million lower-income Americans have no bank accounts or are forced to rely on rip-off check-cashing storefronts and payday lenders, allowing the Postal Service to offer these kinds of financial services would be of huge social benefit,” Sanders said.
The 2006 postal law that created prefunding for retiree health benefits also placed restrictions on the agency’s ability to offer non-postal products, though the postal inspector general has argued USPS could move forward with banking services. A
new USPS reform bill introduced by Carper last month would give the agency more authority to provide non-postal products.
Democrats normalize these things to the point that HL posters are incredulous to the idea that asylum seekers are allowed to have a hearing 
