Will the new Postmaster General be the last?
On his first day on the job, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy addressed postal workers in a video posted on Liteblue. In the four-minute video DeJoy praises the hard work of postal workers, especially during the pandemic. He also vowed to work with the unions, management and lawmakers to place the agency “on a trajectory for success.”
But don’t let DeJoy’s video fool you. Most likely he is emulating the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie’s tactics of saying one thing while doing the opposite. Wilkie, another one of Trump’s lackeys, also put out a nice short video praising the VA and its workers before waging a full-blown attack against them and their unions. The VA Secretary and his advisors from Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-funded “free-market” organization, have been effectively privatizing the Veterans Health Administration, something most veterans oppose.
Will the real DeJoy please stand up
While most of the media focused on the new Postmaster General’s close ties to President Trump and the millions of dollars he contributed to the President and the Republican Party, very little was said about DeJoy’s record as the CEO of several companies and how he treated his workers.
DeJoy was CEO of New Breed Logistics from 1983 until his company was acquired by XPO Logistics for $615 million dollars. He was then named CEO of XPO’s supply chain for a year before serving on XPO Logistics' Board of Directors until 2018. Both New Breed and XPO have a long record of violating worker’s rights around the world. This includes sexual harassment, discrimination, wage theft, safety violations and wrongful terminations. The work conditions were so horrific that the NY Times did an investigative report about them in 2018, revealing how several women miscarried after being subjected to strenuous work conditions. The revelation sparked a Congressional investigation.
XPO Logistics is vehemently anti-union and hires multiple anti-union consultants to perform union-busting work. They have called the police on the Teamsters. Numerous lawsuits have been issued against XPO resulting in the company having to pay tens of millions of dollars for violating workers' rights. Yet none of the XPO workers in the U.S. have a collective bargaining agreement.
Follow the money
It is no secret that Louis DeJoy is a mega donor and fundraiser to Trump and the Republican Party. Last February, DeJoy and is wife, Aldona Wos, shelled out $580,600 to have dinner with the President at the estate of billionaire Nelson Peltz. This was Trump’s most expensive fundraiser so far. That same month President Trump nominated Aldona Wos as U.S. ambassador to Canada.
The DeJoy-Wos, like most US billionaires, are extremely conservative on economic issues and use their money and power to influence policy that benefits them. DeJoy is a board member of Fund for American Studies which promotes the limited government and free-market ideology. He has also contributed to American Crossroads, a super-PAC headed by Karl Roves that spends millions of dollars attacking public-sector labor unions.
It is important to note that Robert M. Duncan, who was appointed to the USPS Board of Governors in 2018, is a founding director of American Crossroads.
There is only one reason why DeJoy, a wealthy, anti-government, pro free-market, ultra-conservative Trump crony with a long anti-union record is now the head of the America’s Public Postal Service and that is to implement the White House agenda of privatizing the agency.
But don’t let DeJoy’s video fool you. Most likely he is emulating the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie’s tactics of saying one thing while doing the opposite. Wilkie, another one of Trump’s lackeys, also put out a nice short video praising the VA and its workers before waging a full-blown attack against them and their unions. The VA Secretary and his advisors from Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-funded “free-market” organization, have been effectively privatizing the Veterans Health Administration, something most veterans oppose.
Will the real DeJoy please stand up
While most of the media focused on the new Postmaster General’s close ties to President Trump and the millions of dollars he contributed to the President and the Republican Party, very little was said about DeJoy’s record as the CEO of several companies and how he treated his workers.
DeJoy was CEO of New Breed Logistics from 1983 until his company was acquired by XPO Logistics for $615 million dollars. He was then named CEO of XPO’s supply chain for a year before serving on XPO Logistics' Board of Directors until 2018. Both New Breed and XPO have a long record of violating worker’s rights around the world. This includes sexual harassment, discrimination, wage theft, safety violations and wrongful terminations. The work conditions were so horrific that the NY Times did an investigative report about them in 2018, revealing how several women miscarried after being subjected to strenuous work conditions. The revelation sparked a Congressional investigation.
XPO Logistics is vehemently anti-union and hires multiple anti-union consultants to perform union-busting work. They have called the police on the Teamsters. Numerous lawsuits have been issued against XPO resulting in the company having to pay tens of millions of dollars for violating workers' rights. Yet none of the XPO workers in the U.S. have a collective bargaining agreement.
Follow the money
It is no secret that Louis DeJoy is a mega donor and fundraiser to Trump and the Republican Party. Last February, DeJoy and is wife, Aldona Wos, shelled out $580,600 to have dinner with the President at the estate of billionaire Nelson Peltz. This was Trump’s most expensive fundraiser so far. That same month President Trump nominated Aldona Wos as U.S. ambassador to Canada.
The DeJoy-Wos, like most US billionaires, are extremely conservative on economic issues and use their money and power to influence policy that benefits them. DeJoy is a board member of Fund for American Studies which promotes the limited government and free-market ideology. He has also contributed to American Crossroads, a super-PAC headed by Karl Roves that spends millions of dollars attacking public-sector labor unions.
It is important to note that Robert M. Duncan, who was appointed to the USPS Board of Governors in 2018, is a founding director of American Crossroads.
There is only one reason why DeJoy, a wealthy, anti-government, pro free-market, ultra-conservative Trump crony with a long anti-union record is now the head of the America’s Public Postal Service and that is to implement the White House agenda of privatizing the agency.
