Darlene Jones is inside the downtown Jackson post office on a snowy March morning. Though she retired two years ago, she is wearing her blue post office jacket. She is here as vice president of the Wyoming chapter of the American Postal Workers Union. The union has around 100 chapters all over the country.
Though she doesn’t have any signs, she is here talking to employees to support the union’s national campaign, with the slogan “U.S. mail is not for sale.”
“We’ve got some new employees, so I wanted to introduce myself and talk to them,” she said.
She is asking the public to support not privatizing the post office.
The national “hands off” campaign comes on the heels of layoffs in various federal agencies that have shaken employee morale and confidence. Postal workers have long felt themselves a target.
President Trump has been threatening to cut funding to the Postal Service since 2020, after making unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud with mail-in ballots. Now, he and Elon Musk want to privatize the service. The service has been in a loss spiral, losing $87 billion from 2007 through 2020, the Associated Press reported.
“Basically, something’s got to have a chance of going bankrupt, or there is no good feedback loop for improvement,” Musk said of USPS.
The postal union’s most recent “day of action” on March 20 was a direct response to Musk’s comments, though there have been other rallies in the past before Trump took office. Leadership is wavering after former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigned on March 24. He served for five years.
Most federal agencies are tax-funded. However, the Postal Service’s revenue comes from products and services like stamps and packaging. Mail volume has declined 25% since 2015. While revenue has also declined, with a $9.5 billion loss in 2023 alone, the postal service has had to raise prices to make up for losses. Stamps now cost $0.73 for a first class letter, increasing nearly 50% in the past decade.
Employees have warned that the service is headed in the direction of less service, especially for the 51 million people in rural communities. Inconvenience and inefficiency for customers already exist.
Kelli Jones (no relation to Darlene) owns NoSo, a Jackson company selling sticker-like patches for outdoor gear. Every day, she mails between 50 and 600 packages. She does most of the logistics, like stamps and labels, ahead of time.
“We just have to drop off at the window,” says Kelli. “And if they are closed early, we have to come back the next day.”
Closing early and opening late is one way the post office in Jackson has managed staffing shortages over the past decade. They are also asking for patience.
Last summer, signs in the downtown office asked customers to fill out a survey which said the office had only 35% of the usual staff.
But Darlene, the union leader, said that even short-staffed, the USPS remains an invaluable service.
“It’s the safest form of communication,” she said. “We go every day, even if we have one piece of mail on the farthest part of your rural route or your city route.”
James Boxrud is the post office’s spokesperson for the western region, based out of Denver. He says mountain towns like Vail and Aspen in Colorado have the same issue.
“The cost of living is very high. It’s very hard on a government salary to be able to afford housing in those places,” Boxrud said.
Jackson Hole has seen some positions filled in recent months, but employees are spread thin across a vast landscape. Darlene said two new hires live an hour and a half south in Lincoln County.
The postmaster for Jackson splits his time between his main assignment an hour south in Afton and the four Jackson offices — which include the Moose and Kelly branches, a 30-minute drive north. He has been what they call the ‘officer in charge’ since last June. His predecessor lived in Cheyenne, an eight-hour drive away.
Boxrud said only about a quarter of Jackson Hole’s positions are vacant, a big improvement from last summer’s 65%.
Darlene, though, isn’t taking that number for granted.
“All of the union members are working right now,” she said. “They’re not allowed to [protest] while they’re on the clock.”
