Postal Service selects FedEx Board -member as the following Postmaster -General

Leaders of Postal Service selected David Steiner, a member of the FedEx board, to be the next postmaster general of the country, a choice that critics fear that the urge of the Trump government can accelerate to privatize the independent agency.

Mr. Steiner, who also served as President and Chief Executive of Waste Management Inc., will take over the post office while it is struggling with uncertainty about his future And loses billions of dollars every year. He is expected to start in July after cleaning up background and ethical checks, said officials of the desk on Friday.

“I admire the public service and business mission of this great institution, and I strongly believe in maintaining his role as an independent establishment of the executive,” Mr. Steiner said in a statement. “I am enthusiastic about the challenges that lie in front of us and because of the many possibilities to shape a lively, sustainable and more competitive future for the postal service.”

Some democratic legislators and leaders of the trade union have expressed great concern about Mr Steiner’s appointment because of his connection with a direct competitor of the postal service. Although the postmaster general is selected by the board of the office and not by the White House, President Trump said he would do that Consider a major reorganization From the agency in an attempt to reverse his financial fortune. In February Mr. Trump said that his administration would look at a ‘form of a merger’, and that trade secretary Howard Lutnick would help lead the initiative.

Many democratic legislators and trade union leaders saw the effort as a way for administration to take control of the agency and try to sell important aspects of its services or outsource to private companies. This would disproportionately influence the rural areas, they said, where it is less profitable for private companies to deliver e -mail.

“The Trump government has been ruthless in its attempts to privatize the most trusted institution of America both at the latest and behind the scenes,” said representative Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, the top democrat in the supervisory committee, in a statement. “It’s a flagrant conflict of interest.”

Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, said that the selection of the board was indignant because this could lead to the privatization of the agency that he thought could lead worse service in the countryside And higher prices for customers.

“It raises the question whether this is a post office that will be run for the well -being of the people of the country,” said Mr Dimondstein, “or whether it will be a post office that serves private companies such as Fedex.”

Postal services said that Mr. Steiner was the right person to lead the agency because he had carried out “enormous change” and delivered strong financial results as he led waste management for 12 years. Mr. Steiner leaves the board of Fedex before he arrives at the postal service, said officials of the office.

“Our board is looking forward to working with Dave while he accepts the core mandates to offer universal and excellent service to the American public and to do this in a financially sustainable way,” said Amber McReynolds, the chairman of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors, in a statement.

Mr. Steiner’s appointment comes after Louis Dejoy, a former Logistics Executive and Republican donor, kicked As a postmaster general at the end of March. Mr DeJoy, who had been in the role for almost five years, had supervised one 10-year plan to revise The agency and guiding it out of a financial crisis.

But the agency continued to lose money, which has attributed post leaders to high inflation, increased labor costs and Steep pension costs.

In the second quarter of this tax year, the postal service lost $ 3.3 billionsaid the agency, an increase of $ 1.5 billion for the same quarter last year. The agency is supposed to be self -sufficient and generally does not receive tax money for operating costs, relying on income from its turnover instead.

Union leaders have pronounced optimism That the plan could yield more and more in the coming years, but they have also expressed concern about the decline of the agency. In the tax year of 2024, 81 percent of the first -class letters and postcards were delivered on time. That fell from 88 percent the year before, and under the purpose of the 92 percent agency, according to data from the postal service.

Leaders of FedEx praised Mr Steiner’s selection and said that the agency “must be held responsible for the same rules as companies in the private sector.”

“David is an excellent supervisor who has been a member of the FedEx Council since 2009 and as the main dependent director since 2013,” said Frederick W. Smith, the founder and executive chairman of Fedex, in a statement. “Although we will miss him in the FedEx board of directors, he steps into the general post of the Postmaster at a criticism. The USPS must be reformed to improve services.”