U.S. postal workers union endorses Bernie Sanders for president in 2016

Contending that “politics as usual has not worked”, APWU President Mark Dimondstein said presidential candidates shouldn’t be judged by their party affiliation, but rather by what they say and do.

Calling the Democratic candidate “a fierce advocate of postal reform to address the cause of the USPS financial crisis”, Dimondstein said “Bernie Sanders doesn’t just talk the talk: he walks the walk. He walks the walk”.

Clinton has locked down several key components of organized labor, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “It’s time for a political revolution”, Dimondstein said, also highlighting Sanders’ proposals for $15 minimum wage, free public college tuition and veterans’ benefits.

“It is shocking that the data suggests that Sanders has a lead over Trump that could be so huge that he would win a landslide victory in the presidential campaign, with margins that would nearly certainly lead Democrats to regain control of the Senate and could help Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives”, the Hill reported.

The endorsement is likely to give Sanders a boost ahead of the second Democratic debate in Iowa on Saturday. The vote follows Sanders’ rousing speech to more than 2,000 activists at the union’s All-Craft Conference, held in Las Vegas, in late October, where he displayed a deep understanding of postal issues and workers’ concerns.

“I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it”, said Sanders. In 2011, then-Senator Sanders introduced the Postal Service Protection Act, a bill aimed at modernizing the postal system in order to avert impending post office closures, and save tens of thousands of jobs.

The postal workers backing comes at a time when Sanders’ aides were growing somewhat tired of the union support Clinton was winning.

Dimondstein urged union members to get involved in the Sanders’ campaign by volunteering or attaching themselves to those organizing under the ‘Labor for Bernie’ banner, but also said that union members and workers should not be naive to think that even a Sanders’ victory in 2016 would be enough to achieve their goals.

Larry Cohen, a senior Sanders adviser on labor issues, welcomed the endorsement. All told, Clinton has picked up twelve national labor union endorsements to date. Sanders called out the Republican plan to kill 230,000 Postal Service jobs through privatization.

Sanders hopes that other unions will follow but, in the meantime, the scope of this new endorsement is a statement of its own.