National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) rally and march in Boston, MA (May 17, 2026)
by Ali Senior
National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 34 (personal capacity)
Boston, MA
In December of 2019, the United States Postal Service (USPS) temporarily shut down their Allston office due to, what they say is, concern for the safety and health of their customers and employees. There were significant structural issues with the building, including a large crack running along the office wall that appeared the day it was shut down. Since then, the 87,000 residents of the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston have only had 1 post office, and Allston postal workers have been working out of the Boston Processing and Distribution Center and traveling between the Boston location and Allston. Last year, the post office made a statement that they intend to re-open the Allston location. But in September, the USPS announced that they actually plan to close the office for good. The nearby Watertown office, which has been shuttered since 2024, also faces permanent closure, and the Fields Corner office in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston had been slated to “temporarily” close on October 26, with residents given less than a month’s notice, until USPS rolled back their decision less than a week before the planned closure.
The post office is an essential service that should be expanded, not reduced. Paying bills, receiving medications and important documents, voting by mail, contacting loved ones, receiving necessary inventory for businesses, are all services that the post office provides. These services are currently affordable and accessible, including to rural parts of the country. But these services are under threat.
Allston residents have been instructed to go to the Brookline and Brighton offices for their business. While this might work for now, these closures are happening more often. These closures are part of a greater plan to attack, underfund, and reduce services to allow the post office to be privatized. Since 1970, postal service has shifted from being publicly-funded to being self-funded, causing a lot of strain. The USPS has stated that they are going bankrupt. They’ve said that they just aren’t making enough money to sustain themselves, which has a lot of postal workers and community members worried that the public service will be privatized.
The USPS is a service, it makes sense that it wouldn’t make money. Its motivation is to serve the public, not to charge high rates to churn a profit. But the USPS frequently makes decisions that cost it money and worsen services. USPS has increased spending on management instead of workers. In the 1990s, there was 1 manager for every 20 city carriers. Today, there is 1 manager for every 7 city carriers. Managers today make starting pay of $70,000, while city carriers start at $33,000. Understaffing offices and the number of offices dwindling is worsened by management also violating union contracts and overworking their employees. Managers breach contracts on a daily basis. These instances accumulate as grievances. Grievances need to be arbitrated and paid out. A 2026 audit found that the post office spent $866 million in payouts over the last three years.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties have made their attempts to privatize the office. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 claimed to save the Post Office (PO) but in reality put the office into major debt. This was passed by Congress with no opposition from the Democrats. Both corporate political parties want to take the USPS and turn it into a money maker, meaning we would lose a vital service to working people. It would mean the USPS becoming like FedEx and UPS, with prices skyrocketing, “unprofitable” routes cut off, and service only to those who can afford it.
The postal worker unions need to take up the fight and work with the community to put pressure on the USPS to reestablish the Allston post office. We need to organize the workers and the community to demand improved and increased services, quality pay and staffing at offices, and full funding for postal services. We also need a workers’ party that can stand against the anti-union, anti-worker Democratic and Republican parties that try to privatize our basic needs in order to benefit corporations. A workers’ party can help to protect the Post Office.
ISG calls for:
- The renovation and reopening of an Allston Post Office and reinstatement of displaced carriers.
- The postal unions’ involvement in fighting the closure of the Allston Post Office. The National Association of Letter Carriers should have interest in protecting its letter carriers jobs and improving their working conditions and pay. For other unions to join the postal unions to stop closures and cuts to services and jobs.
- The creation of a workers’ party with a socialist program to break from the corporate agendas of the Democrats and Republicans to defend and fund our public services such as the PO.
- Nationalize and combine logistics companies like FedEx, UPS, and Amazon with the USPS and make it a democratically-run public service.
