WHEREAS, the United States Postal Service provides a vital utility to every resident of the country in every community, no matter how remote, delivering correspondence and packages that include mail, groceries, Census forms, vote-by-mail ballots and even lifesaving medications, with more than 1 billion prescriptions delivered in 2019; and

WHEREAS, a vaccine for COVID-19 will almost certainly not be widely available in time for this year’s elections, so the Postal Service will be necessary to conduct them safely, enabling millions of Americans to vote by mail; and

WHEREAS, the essential service postal workers provide requires them to labor during the coronavirus pandemic, putting them at of risk infection, illness and death; and

WHEREAS, Republicans in Congress passed a law in 2006 forcing the Postal Service to pre-fund its employee pension and retirement costs — including health care — for the next 75 years, meaning it must fund retirement accounts for employees who haven't yet been hired — or even born; and

WHEREAS, the year that mandate passed, the Postal Service made $900 million in profits; it has not had a single profitable year since; and

WHEREAS, the Postal Service is entirely funded by revenue from the sales of stamps and postage and the coronavirus pandemic has caused the volume of mail to plummet, putting the Postal Service at risk of running out of funds; and

WHEREAS, Congress has bailed out private corporations, providing $50 billion to the airline industry and $4 billion for FedEx and UPS but Republicans in Congress are stonewalling emergency funding for the publicly owned Postal Service; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, the UFT affirms the role of the U.S. Postal Service as a public institution and the necessity of its services, which have only become more critical during the pandemic; and be it also

RESOLVED, the UFT stands in solidarity with the American Postal Workers Union, representing 200,000 employees and retirees of the U.S. Postal Service.