Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has landed the endorsement of the American Postal Workers Union, an AFL-CIO affiliate with more than 200,000 members in all 50 states.
“No other candidate has his record of standing with workers on picket lines, fighting for a $15 per hour minimum wage, supporting free public college tuition, and advocating for veterans’ benefits,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the union.
Sanders is “a true champion of postal workers and other workers throughout the country,” he added.
The Nov. 5 endorsement by the union’s executive board follows an October speech by Sanders to 2,000 postal employees at the APWU’s All-Craft conference in Las Vegas.
“Brothers and sisters, for over 230 years, and enshrined in our Constitution, the postal service has played an unbelievably important role for the people of our country and for our entire economy,” Sanders said in Vegas. “And that mission today remains as important is it has ever been.”
Sanders has been a defender of the United States Postal Service in the face of cuts and layoffs.
Following the closing of 141 mail-processing plants over the past two years, Sanders reintroduced the Postal Service Protection Act in January, a bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on USPS layoffs and plant closings. He also fought plans in January to slow down first-class mail.
Sanders has also proposed modernization efforts at post offices, including adding basic banking services, copy services and the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses.
“We should be working to strengthen the Postal Service,” Sanders said in January. “Not send it into a death spiral.”
In May, following backlash from Sanders and other legislators, the USPS quietly canceled plans to shut down 82 mail sorting facilities and 3,600 rural post offices, including 15 in Vermont. While offices weren’t shuttered, operating hours at many offices were slashed, including in Vermont.
Sanders’ postal proposals are inspired by postal systems in Europe. In France, post offices offer banking and insurance services. In Switzerland, citizens can have their physical mail scanned and delivered to email inboxes by postal workers.
“[Sanders] has already blocked the slate of nominees to the postal Board of Governors that includes the ‘king of postal privatizers’ James Miller and payday lending industry lobbyist Mickey Barnett,” Dimondstein said before encouraging members to help elect Sanders president.
Sanders has struggled to rack up endorsements, especially from federal legislators and business leaders. Sanders has earned two congressional endorsements, from progressive U.S. Reps. Paul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, according to a review by the website FiveThirtyEight.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has 415 endorsements from governors, representatives and senators, including Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and Gov. Peter Shumlin. She has also picked up endorsements from a number of major unions, including the National Education Association.
Larry Cohen, a labor adviser to the Sanders campaign, said the postal endorsement means increased organizational support for Sanders in all 50 states.
“APWU is everywhere there is a post office and their 250,000 members are way at the top when it comes to member involvement and union democracy,” he said. “We welcome the unprecedented support of the APWU executive board and look forward to working with their members across the United States.”
Sanders was endorsed by the National Nurses United, another AFL-CIO member comprised of 185,000 members, in August. He has also received support from local union chapters in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to spokesman Michael Briggs.
The national AFL-CIO has not made an endorsement, though Sanders has been gaining ground with rank-and-file members, and South Carolina and Vermont AFL-CIO chapters have passed resolutions supporting Sanders.
An internal union memo obtained by Politico in July from national AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka, made clear that state chapters cannot endorse candidates, according to the group’s bylaws.
“I want to remind you all that the AFL-CIO endorsement for president and vice president belongs to the national AFL-CIO,” Trumka wrote in the memo.