Caught on Tape: Postmaster Brags about Record Hiring of “Comrades” in Public Sector Unions

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was caught on tape praising public sector unions and asking for these unionized “comrades” to celebrate him over his hiring plan, according to a recent report.

Reporter Matthew Foldi first revealed the leaked audio clip in a Substack report last week. The audio was reportedly recorded during DeJoy’s remarks at the October Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meeting, where he went on to praise unions and advocate for greater “insourcing” for the unionized postal workforce.

“Getting rid of all that, bringing a lot of stuff in house… For a unionized operation, which we are, right, 100 percent unionized, that has successfully––I wouldn’t say successfully––but has outsourced a lot of operations. Alright? We’re probably going to do the biggest insourcing ever in America, in terms of what we’re doing,” DeJoy said at the meeting. “I was actually with our supervisors union yesterday. I said, ‘Comrades, how come you’re not celebrating me?’”

Listen to the full audio clip here.

Context – Postal Service posts $9.5 billion loss while DeJoy keeps increasing labor costs

The context in this situation makes Dejoy’s comments far worse. The “biggest insourcing ever in America” DeJoy brags about is the postal service’s controversial hiring of thousands of additional full-time employees despite mandates to bring down costs. As pointed out by the Washington Times, DeJoy converted 125,000 part-time employees into full-time workers. He then went out and hired more part-timers, adding 30,000 careerists to the employment rolls over three years.

Despite the Postal Service’s mandate to be self-sustaining, the Postal Service reported a $9.5 billion loss in Fiscal year 2024, according to the U.S. Postal Service own year end financial report released today. This follows a $6.5 billion loss in fiscal year 2023 and significantly eclipses earlier projections that the postal service would lose $8 billion in fiscal year 2024. These loses come despite DeJoy’s claim that his “Delivering for America” restructuring plan would see the Postal Service break even in 2023 and post a $1.7 billion surplus in 2024.

Postal union gives overwhelmingly to Democrats

The “supervisors union” DeJoy refers to in the audio clip and expects to celebrate him is the National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS). In the 2024 election cycle, NAPS gave 87% of the political contributions from its Political Action Committee to Democrat candidates, for a total of $387,050 spent electing Democrats to federal office. DeJoy’s “insourcing” means more members for the union, more members paying dues and more political money for Democrats.

DeJoy’s pivot to survive in Biden-Harris Administration

In 2023, DeJoy received a glowing review from Time Magazine describing the new found respect Democrats now hold for the Postmaster General appointed during the Trump Administration. Below are some excerpts.

“The notion that DeJoy, 65, would help advance a key Democratic agenda item would have seemed unfathomable a few years ago. But to the astonishment of many in Washington, the man Democrats once denounced as a threat to American democracy has become one of their most important allies in government.”

“DeJoy may be best known as the Trump-era GOP megadonor the left accused of meddling with mail-in voting to subvert the 2020 election. But by the time Schumer called him on that frigid winter night, DeJoy was on his way to convincing congressional Republicans—120 in the House and 29 in the Senate—to buy into a lengthy Democratic wish list of postal reforms. When President Joe Biden signed the landmark legislation into law two months later, it guaranteed a union-friendly version of six-day mail service and stabilized health coverage for the 650,000 USPS employees. “There’s no way we could have gotten [the] votes without Louis DeJoy,” says Jim Sauber, the chief of staff for the National Association of Letter Carriers at the time. “That’s for sure.”

DeJoy receives praise from comrades at postal union

DeJoy did receive some of the celebration he was seeking from his union comrades in recent weeks. After securing a new contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS), which includes not only future pay raises but also retroactive pay raises for unionized postal workers, National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian Renfroe credited DeJoy personally for the deal, according to CBS News. Renfroe noted that the deal is the union’s largest wage increase since 2006.

These record pay increases for unionized workers came despite a continued failure to meet the agency’s financial and efficiency targets. The USPS inspector general found earlier this year that the Postal Service is failing to live up to its promised cost savings, due in part to less efficient worker productivity. In particular, the audit report noted a failure to reduce work hours as mail volumes continue to fall, which they said indicates a “reduction in work hours productivity.” DeJoy’s “comrades” will now receive higher taxpayer-funded paychecks despite lower productivity.

As DeJoy continues his plan to “insource” more work to inefficient public-sector union workers instead of contracting out to more efficient private actors, DeJoy is delivering for his “comrades”––but not delivering for Americans.