Operating without tax dollars for decades, relying on the sale of products and service, USPS delivers almost half of the world’s mail, including millions of packages for UPS and FedEx.

Bob Gunter, president of the American Postal Workers Union’s Heart of Illinois Area Local, said, “The Postal Service is an economic engine that employs 633,000 employees and is the core of a $1.6 trillion U.S. mailing industry that employs more than 7.3 million people. The Postal Service processes and delivers 143 billion pieces of mail each year and is the only organization in the country that has the resources, network infrastructure and logistical capability to deliver to every residential and business address in the nation six (and sometimes seven) days a week.

“The USPS delivers to 160 million addresses every day and an additional 1.2 million new addresses are added each year.

“The Postal Service is a retail giant with the nation’s largest network of 34,613 outlets serving over 811 million customers each year – more than McDonalds, Starbucks and Walmart combined.

“The workforce of more than 600,000 people is one of the most diverse, with 30% minorities, and is also one of the largest employers of veterans and women.”

See: the #SaveThePostOffice social-media campaign or check out USMailNotForSale.org or HeroesDelivering.com.