Why Is USPS Asking Workers For Money? 💰(Nobody Explains This Clearly)

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:01][singing] [music] [singing and music] >> Chloe, thank you for sharing all that information with me. I can say her name cuz she's retired.

[00:00:18]I'm doing videos and I'm getting messages from her. Look, before I get into this video, I already know a lot of people probably clicked this title like, man, what the hell is Jay talking about?

[00:00:29]Because as you all know, this is not normally my lane. I don't come on here talking about politics whatsoever. I don't come on here telling people who to vote for. I don't come on here trying to push specific parties. That is not my thing. It's never been my thing. And honestly, I'm struggling to make this video.

[00:00:51]>> [sighs] >> So, bear with me.

[00:00:54]I probably started and stopped this video in my head like 15 times.

[00:01:00]But, nowadays, as soon as people hear anything connected to Washington, to Congress, to political funds, to the unions, they immediately go crazy. And I'm being very careful how I say this video and bear with me. Just bear with me. Because we have everybody that picks sides, people get emotional, people already angry before conversation even starts, and that is exactly what I did not want this video turning into. So, please be respectful in the comments.

[00:01:32]So, before anybody jumps in the comments, please just listen first.

[00:01:37]That's all I'm asking.

[00:01:39]Because whether people like hearing it or not, the people sitting up in Congress are the people that are making decisions in those offices.

[00:01:48]>> [sighs and gasps] >> Y'all saw the video where Steiner was sitting in front of Congress and he's basically going back and forth getting drilled by them. Those people can literally help or make help help make us or break us long term. Those are the people that make decisions in those offices. That that's facts.

[00:02:14]And I think a lot of postal workers don't really think about that enough because we get so caught up in surviving day-to-day.

[00:02:25]And Jonathan Smith, the APWU president, brought this to my attention when we had a conversation last time. And I don't think I really grasp everything.

[00:02:38]Everybody gets caught up thinking about their routes, they think about dealing with management, they think about short staffing, they think about late trucks, they think about non-stop policy changes, they try to survive this inflation, they try to survive this schedule. And a lot of people are not sitting around thinking, "Well, how does the Washington D.C. affect the Postal Service?" Because it does.

[00:03:03]A lot of people do not realize how much they actually do.

[00:03:07]Now, the reason I even started digging is because again, myself and Jonathan Smith were having a conversation. I think it might have been on screen, maybe behind the scenes, and he brought up union workers donating into political funds.

[00:03:23]Very I don't like to talk about it, and I brushed past it because I'm like, "I don't want to touch this subject publicly because I already know how people get." But then later on, I started reading more for myself. I started looking deeper. I went on the NALC website. I started reading what some of these unions actually say, and the purpose is I went on NALC union, I went on APWU union, I went on actually unions that outside of the Postal Service. And the more I looked into it, the more I realized, hold up.

[00:03:59]A lot of my postal workers brothers and sisters probably do not understand what the political funds are actually for.

[00:04:08]Because I didn't know.

[00:04:10]Most people hear political fund and immediately think, nah, I'm not no, they taking money for politics.

[00:04:18]And then like myself, people mentally check out.

[00:04:23]But it is deeper than that. After watching watching Steiner go at it with Congress.

[00:04:31]Again, let me make this clear cuz I know how people twist words online. As postal workers, we still fall underneath the Hatch Act.

[00:04:41]So I don't want no angry mailmen and mail women out there talking about politics.

[00:04:51]We are not supposed to publicly use our position to support political candidates while representing the Postal Service.

[00:05:00]So this video is not me telling anybody, vote for Democrats, vote for Republicans, support this candidate. It is none of that. That is not what I am doing. I'm trying to explain the why behind these funds existing in the first place.

[00:05:19]In simple terms, high school level, easy breakdown cuz I've been reading this for the last 2 hours trying to figure this stuff up.

[00:05:27]Cuz Jonathan before Jonathan brought that up, I don't I didn't understand this stuff myself.

[00:05:33]So from what I'm reading, the unions are basically saying this, look, Congress controls a lot of stuff connected to the Postal Service and they do.

[00:05:45]People think USPS moves around freely on his own.

[00:05:48]They do not.

[00:05:50]Congress can influence retirement benefits, our health benefits, the postal reform, the staffing decisions, the delivery standards. We're going to go to 5 days. No, we're going to go to 6 days. The labor protections, the privatization attempts, all kind of stuff. We need them.

[00:06:11]Even when you hear conversations about cutting jobs, changing service standards, changing retirement systems, a lot of that starts in Washington somewhere. That's why donating matters.

[00:06:25]So, when the union asks workers, which they barely ask them, "Can you donate $3, $4, $5, whatever it is?" The purpose behind it is basically saying, "We need people in those rooms, behind closed doors, on our side." That's what this really comes down to. And let's be honest. If postal workers never organize, they never speak up, they never contribute, they never have representation, then do you think the political the politicians are going to listen to us?

[00:07:01]Billion-dollar companies. They got lobbyists. They got private shipping interests. They got Amazon. This just happened. The corporations are ready pouring money into Washington every day.

[00:07:14]That's reality.

[00:07:16]And that's how the system works, whether people realize it or not. Money gets attention.

[00:07:22]Influence gets attention. Groups get attention. And USPS employees, whether we realize it or not, we got interests, too. We got families. We got bills. We got retirement concerns. We got health concerns. We got job concerns. It's not just me saying it. Time magazine saying it. Sports Illustrated is saying it. the the Bleacher Report is saying it. This is true. So, if the unions are basically saying, "If we don't have some kind of voice in Washington, we get steamrolled."

[00:07:53]Now, whether some people agree with how the money gets used, that's a different conversation.

[00:08:01]People have every right to question things. That's 100% fair. People Some people going to support it, and some people are not.

[00:08:10]Some people say, "I ain't donating shit."

[00:08:13]And I respect that. That's your choice.

[00:08:15]But, at least now, maybe people understand why the funds exist. And honestly, the deeper message that I am trying to get across in this video is a lot of postal workers underestimate how connected USPS is in politics behind the scenes.

[00:08:38]Now, politics in emotional TV, not not Oh, man, this is so hard for me.

[00:08:46]Not politics in the emotional TV arguments that we tend to see. No, I'm talking about real-world decisions. The budgets that we have, the laws that supersede us, the retirement systems, the reforms, the service changes. If we have people on our side, when a postal worker gets injured by an outside person, they would take it a lot more seriously. That stuff affects our everyday lives, [clears throat] whether we pay attention to it or not.

[00:09:17]A lot of carriers are frustrated because sometimes they feel powerless. A lot of postal workers feel powerless. Like decisions just happen to us. One day your route changes. One day the schedule changes. One day we have machines replacing clerks. One day equipment changes. One day pen benefits are being changed. The the the thing that they just spoke about when they were taken away from their furs or the retirement, that is all part of this process. That's why unions try to keep relationships in Washington. And when legislation look the word up, starts moving they want somebody in those rooms understanding how it affects postal workers. Not just numbers on paper. And honestly, I don't know if this video is going to make people feel uncomfortable because it made me feel uncomfortable making it.

[00:10:15]Because this is not my usual lane. But sometimes I take it upon myself to explain things even if it's not popular.

[00:10:24]Especially if a lot of workers don't fully understand what's happening behind the scenes. And if nothing else at least now when you hear the word political fund you understand it's not always about vote for this person.

[00:10:39]That's not the case.

[00:10:41]A lot of the times it's make sure postal workers will still have a voice.

[00:10:46]And somewhere in the conversation we can get our voice across. I can be voice of the voiceless.

[00:10:56]But it means nothing if those people that are sitting up in Washington don't agree.

[00:11:03]I apologize if this video made you feel uncomfortable.

[00:11:07]But that was not my intention.

[00:11:10]This is JH.

[00:11:14]No script. Just facts. And I'm out.

[00:11:21]Real quick, if you're dealing with a grievance and trying to figure out the contract language, check out the CRE app. It's an AI research tool built for postal workers. You type in what happened and it helps pull up contract language and arbitration proceeding.

[00:11:35][music] If your union's dropping the ball, this gives you a starting point.

[00:11:40]Links down below kresearch.com.

[00:11:46]M-force a free app made by a mail carrier for all mail carriers. We have a color calendar.

[00:11:52]You can select your color.

[00:11:54]We have resources for carriers. [music] You can track your forwards.

[00:11:58]You can edit them.

[00:12:00]You can see the history of edits, but M-force does not sell your information.

[00:12:05]None of your information is sent from your device. All the data is stored locally. Make sure to check out the app often. Lots of changes.

[00:12:16]All [music] I hear is talking. [singing] I don't sweat that.

[00:12:19]If they don't trust me either, I respect [music] that.

[00:12:22]They see me down the road, they'll [singing] ride band wagon.