(Story from the Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Ads from the American Postal Workers Union will be playing on Iowa stations beginning this week warning about a federal proposal to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, the union announced Monday. The Iowa television advertisements are part of a national campaign by the APWU that calls on supporters to rally Congress against President Donald Trump’s potential plans to privatize the public mail service. While USPS does receive some funding from Congress, it does not directly receive taxpayer money, and largely relies on revenues from stamps and other services. However, the postal service is facing financial difficulties — the USPS reported a $9.5 billion net loss in fiscal year 2024, which leaders said largely went to unfunded retiree pension liabilities and non-cash workers’ compensation adjustments.

President Trump brought up privatization or making other changes to the USPS during his first term as president, and the Washington Post reported he introduced the idea again following the 2024 general election. In February, Trump confirmed that his administration was considering having the U.S. Department of Commerce take control of the independent postal service. The former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had agreed to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency service in March on specific areas where the USPS could find cost savings, shortly before he resigned. The new Postmaster General David Steiner took the position Thursday.

(Iowa Capital Dispatch photo)

Steiner, a former board member of FedEx, told USPS employees in a video Thursday that despite “rumors” to the contrary, “I do not believe that the Postal Service should be privatized, or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government. “I believe in the current structure of the Postal Service as a self-financing, independent entity of the executive branch,” Steiner said. But concerns about the future of the U.S. Postal Service remain. In the advertisement from the American Postal Workers Union, the group highlights a document sent by Wells Fargo to investors about a path to privatization, which include notes that the costs of key parcel products would rise, and local post offices could be sold off for profit.

The document also notes that while private mail services like FedEx and UPS could benefit from the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service, this shift could cause problems in some American communities that rely on USPS for election ballots, taxes and medicine. The USPS also has a “Universal Service Obligation” policy commitment, requiring it to deliver mail to all addresses in the country, including in rural and remote areas, with “affordable and uniform pricing” — an obligation private services are not required to meet.

APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement the ad aims to highlight how the move to privatize the USPS could raise costs and hurt small communities. “Wall Street stands to make huge profits if all or parts of the USPS are sold off, but those who live on Main Street would have less service and higher costs,” he said. Dimondstein added, “Those who live in rural areas would be especially hard hit. It also would be devastating to many small businesses, the trillion-dollar e-commerce industry and threaten the ability to vote by mail.”

The advertisements will also be run on broadcasts and social media in Alaska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, as well as on the national CNN, MSNBC and FOX channels. The ad calls for viewers to contact their members of Congress to share their concerns about the possibility of USPS privatization. Dimonstein said, “The people need to understand what’s at stake and send the message; “The U.S. Mail is not for sale.’”