Featured News

May 8, 2020 – Friday Message

Greetings fellow UPMA Members:

To all of the mothers out there I want to begin by wishing you a very Happy Mother’s Day weekend.   If the current pandemic prevents you from getting together with your family at least in most cases, you are able to use electronic means to communicate with them.

As your president and as an organization I want to continue to offer my thanks to you at these trying times and thank you for all you do.    In some parts of the country we are not only seeing reopening happen in various areas of the economy and in different types of businesses.   In addition, we are also seeing somewhat of a downward trend in the number of new cases of the coronavirus.   Obviously, we hope that reopening of the businesses does not cause an upswing in the case levels from here on out.

Well, it is official!  After months of searching the United States Postal Service Board of Governors has named the 75^th Postmaster General of the United States, Mr. Louis DeJoy.    Even though he does not officially take over until June 15^th, on behalf of UPMA I want to welcome him on board.    Any time that we have change at the top of the organization there can be much concern about what will happen.    My advice to all of you is let’s take a wait and see attitude as to what might, or might not, happen within the organization under Mr. DeJoy’s leadership.    There currently are and there will continue to be many articles written about him and much more information is available on the internet about him.   I caution you to not jump to conclusions.   One thing we need to keep in mind is that we are in a new era and what he has, or hasn’t, done in the past does not necessarily translate to what he may, or may not, do when he takes over the reins of the Postal Service.    We are, without a doubt, a much different organization than he has run in the past; however, my prayer is that his past experience will position him well to maybe make some needed changes in the USPS to position the organization into the future.    I look forward to meeting and working with Mr. DeJoy as he assumes his new position.

Once again we want to thank Megan Brennan for all her years with the United States Postal Service and for the leadership she has shown at the Postal Service Headquarters level over these past number of years, especially the past five as Postmaster General.   On behalf of UPMA I wish her well in a much earned period of retirement.

We continue to need assistance legislatively.    We need to continue to communicate with the members of Congress on the financial needs of the USPS and the need to have some real assistance given to the Postal Service in the next COVID-19 recovery bill that is scheduled to be introduced soon.    We had a telecom with many different participants earlier this week.   I would encourage you to go onto our website, unitedpma.org and there you will find information on the new Postal Preservation Caucus that has been formed and materials to encourage your members of the House and Senate to join that effort.   Also on the website you will find a letter that you can use to cut and paste into an email, or letter, to send to your members to request and encourage their support for the Postal Service.   If we can make contact with every member of the House and Senate that will go a long way toward bringing some financial stability to the Postal Service at least for the short term.

So, as the pandemic continues be sure that you and your families are staying safe and following the necessary protocols as they have been laid out.   As a nation, as an organization and as the Postal Service we will get through this and even though we don’t know what our country and our individual lives might look like on the other side, we will get there.   Again, I pray for all of you on a daily basis and I know that our prayers are not always answered in the way we want, I am confident they are heard!

Have a good weekend and a great week ahead!   Stay safe!

Thanks,

Dan Heins
National President