Roughly 2,000 U.S. Postal Service workers gathered Downtown on Tuesday to call attention to mail delivery services they believe face an existential threat under the Trump administration. 

The rally, organized by the American Postal Workers Union, protested a forthcoming report from the White House that will likely recommend the privatization of the Postal Service, which critics say has lost money and struggled with the rise of electronic communication.

The union argued that privatization would bring an end to universal service, leading to higher prices, unequal treatment of Americans in rural areas and an undoing of the agency’s heritage.

“The American people should not tolerate selling off a national treasure to corporate pirates who will cut postal service, raise prices and destroy good-paying jobs,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the APWU, which represents 200,000 U.S. Postal Service workers. The union is holding its national convention this week at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. 

Mr. Dimondstein said the e-commerce industry was at stake.

“It’s easy to click on a website to make a purchase, but to deliver packages to every possible address in America — no matter how distant — thousands of companies and tens of millions of consumers depend on hard work of the women and men of the U.S. Postal Service,” he said.

This is not the first time the government has looked at ways to reorganize the Postal Service, which has struggled to fund operations with the rise of electronic communications. The service reported a net loss of $2.7 billion in 2017 and has lost a total of $65.1 billion in the last decade.

But the union argued much of those losses are because of a 2006 congressional mandate that required the Postal Service to fund future retirees’ health benefits — to the tune of about $5 billion a year through 2017. 

The reported numbers “have nothing to do with reality,” said Mr. Dimondstein, who insisted the service’s operational finances are strong. “It’s a way to create this climate that there’s all this financial hardship.”

In 2006, as the internet ate away at traditional mail volumes and revenue, Congress ordered the agency to review ways to restructure. A report by the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Postal Service, recommended against cuts to universal service or selling off assets to private companies or nonprofits.

The reasons behind the current review are a little murkier.

President Donald Trump, who has targeted federal agencies for widespread cuts since coming into office, called out the Postal Service in a tweet in April for losing a “fortune” to Amazon and promising “this will be changed.” Mr. Trump has escalated a personal feud with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. 

Mr. Trump ordered a task force — led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management — to provide a report by Aug. 10. The report is expected to support privatization and the termination of daily services to regions of the country, according to a separate document in June from the White House that proposes sweeping changes to all reaches of government. 

“A private postal operator that delivers mail fewer days per week and to more central locations [not door delivery] would operate at substantially lower costs,” that document states.

It also contained a direct message to the four Postal Service unions: “Freeing USPS to more fully negotiate pay and benefits rather than prescribing participation in costly federal personnel benefit programs ... could further reduce costs.”

It is unclear how much of the Postal Service’s losses are related to Amazon. 

Congress has required the Postal Service to price parcel delivery at least high enough to cover costs, though PolitiFact reported that the service was charging on average $1.46 below market rates for all parcel delivery — which includes but is not limited to Amazon.

“By law, our competitive package products, including those that we deliver for Amazon, must cover their costs,” Joseph Corbett, the Postal Service’s chief financial officer, wrote in an op-ed last year.

Rather, Mr. Corbett placed blame for the Postal Service’s financial woes on rules governing mail on which the agency enjoys a virtual monopoly. He argued, for example, a price cap on First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Periodicals was “wholly unsuitable to ensuring the Postal Service’s continued ability to provide prompt and reliable universal services.”

Some with the American Postal Workers Union — the National Letter Carriers Association is the second major postal union — think cooler heads will prevail, even the deregulatory fervor of the Trump administration. 

The U.S. Postal Service has long been — by a large margin — the most popular federal agency, according to polls by Gallup. Earlier this year, 74 percent of Americans believed the postal service was doing an “excellent or good job,” while only 5 percent thought their service was poor, according to the polling group. 

The unions are prepared to roll out their largest campaign to date, a spokesman said, hoping to build on recent campaigns to block the Postal Service’s partnership with Staples. Beginning in 2013, the office supply retailer tested “mini post offices” at some of its retail locations in Pittsburgh and three other cities. The partnership was discontinued last year. 

The convention, held every two years in various cities, hosted Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday and will continue through Thursday.

Daniel Moore: dmoore@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2743 and Twitter @PGdanielmoore

Updated at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 21, 2018.

First Published: August 21, 2018, 7:48 p.m.