The campaign for postal banking could get its next boost next week when the American Postal Workers Union goes into contract negotiations planning to push the idea. While Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the postal service's Office of the Inspector General have gotten behind postal banking, the recently retired postmaster general was in favor of cutting services, not adding them, and, Dave Jamieson reports:
It isn't apparent yet how receptive Donahoe's replacement, Megan J. Brennan, might be to reviving postal banking services. Asked whether the agency's new management would entertain such a discussion, an agency spokeswoman said, "We'll just have to wait and see what's addressed during the negotiation process" with the union.
As for Mark Dimondstein, president of the APWU,
"We think it's most appropriate that the needs of [postal customers] are talked about at the bargaining table," Dimondstein said. "And I can tell you this: I haven't met a single person -- though I don't run into Wall Street bankers often -- who think this is a bad idea."
By providing affordable, accessible banking services throughout the country, postal banking could reduce the
$103 billion a year Americans spend on predatory lenders, in addition to strengthening the postal service.