With the idea of postal banking becoming more mainstream in the U.S., the head of the largest union of postal workers says he plans to make a revived banking service part of his union’s upcoming contract talks with the U.S. Postal Service.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), told The Huffington Post that postal banking — when post offices also offer simple banking services like checking and savings accounts — is “an idea that should be reborn and whose time has come.”
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APWU will begin negotiations for a new contract with the postal service next week, and the union expects the agency to seek concessions in employee health and retirement benefits — a common feature in nearly all union contract talks these days. Though it isn’t clear how postal banking could fit into such a contract, Dimondstein said he believes the negotiations will provide a good opportunity to put the proposal before postal management.
“We think it’s most appropriate that the needs of [postal customers] are talked about at the bargaining table,” Dimondstein said. “And I can tell you this: I haven’t met a single person — though I don’t run into Wall Street bankers often — who think this is a bad idea.”
