Federal Government Policy and Business

Union Pushes Post Office to Offer Financial Services

The Washington Post: The American Postal Workers Union is making a big ask as part of contract talks it kicked off Thursday with the U.S. Postal Service: It wants the post office to expand customer offerings to include financial services.

That will be a challenge. The recently departed postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said postal banking doesn’t seem needed or feasible. Instead, he recommended focusing on building the agency’s package delivery service for e-commerce companies like Amazon.com, as traditional first-class mail volumes have fallen by more than 20% since 2009. The union, which is also proposing to extend operating hours at post offices, is hoping new Postmaster General Megan Brennan will consider other ideas.

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