‘Building back worse’: Wisconsin’s fight over the production of USPS vehicles

Wisconsin residents cheered when Oshkosh Defense, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer, won a large contract to build a new generation of post office delivery vehicles - up to 165,000 - but now Wisconsinites are fuming about the company's decision to produce those vehicles in South Carolina, rather than Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's political leaders and labor unions are stepping up pressure on Oshkosh Defense as well as the US Postal Service and White House to get the company to do that manufacturing to Wisconsin. The 10-year contract, which could exceed $10bn, is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs. These leaders warn that unless the production is done in Wisconsin, Democratic candidates will be hurt in that pivotal swing state in this November's elections as well as in 2024.

"We are extremely disappointed in Oshkosh Defense's decision to accept the money from the US Postal Service and then turn around and send their production to a different state," said Stephanie Bloomingdale, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO union federation. "This is just another slap in the face to Wisconsin workers. People are very outraged about it. It doesn't fit into president Biden's vision to have high-road manufacturing."

Many Oshkosh Defense workers are wearing buttons to work, saying, "We Can Build This." These workers, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW), say they're dismayed that the company - unionized since 1938 - plans to do postal vehicle production in one of the nation's most anti-union states. UAW Local 578 in Oshkosh has collected over 1,500 signatures urging the company to rescind its South Carolina decision, and Wisconsin's unions are planning a big rally in February to further pressure Oshkosh Defense.

"When we were notified the company won the contract, we were all excited - that's another contract under our belt, more work for us to do," said Thomas Bowman, a welder at Oshkosh Defense. "But when we were told it wasn't being built here, we were all asking, why not? We know we can build it. We got the workers. We got the tooling. It can be done here."

When the Postal Service first awarded the contract last February, it described the effort as a "historic investment" in next generation delivery vehicles that will replace many postal vehicles that are 20, even 30 years old. The new vehicles will be designed to carry more cargo and will have 360-degree cameras, air conditioning and a front and rear collision avoidance system. The Postal Service noted that Oshkosh Defense was "evaluating which of their several US manufacturing locations" it would choose to produce the vehicles, and since all its existing plants were in Wisconsin, some people said there was a bait-and-switch when the company chose South Carolina.

In a statement, Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat of Wisconsin, said: "Oshkosh Defense has a history of manufacturing trucks for government service in Wisconsin with skilled union labor, so I remain deeply concerned that they decided to manufacture the postal trucks in what appears to be a newly acquired facility with inexperienced, likely non-union hires, in South Carolina." Baldwin said she would continue urging Oshkosh Defense and the Postal Service to do further scrutiny of the production site in South Carolina. "I want these trucks made in Wisconsin," she said.