[wolframhempel]

I'm surprised that this is something that needs to be said with caution. Does anybody want to live in a world where individual government institutions selectively shun private citizens or companies? A world where - rather than in a court of law - you're punished by the electricity company deciding to cut your power?

[therouwboat]

Its not really government thats wants to block deliveries, more like government owned company is supporting workers and unions.

[whats_a_quasar]

The government has the obligation to deliver services to residents and businesses. If some government workers refuse to do the work, the government's obligation is unchanged, and they need to find another way to fulfill it

[mrmanner]

The government has an obligation to deliver services according to its laws and agreements it has entered. The current view of the courts seems to be that there’s no law clearly defining an obligation for the state so provide postal services in this specific situation.

Will be interesting to see where this ends.

[JumpCrisscross]

> government has the obligation to deliver services to residents and businesses

Postnord is a private company [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostNord

[s1artibartfast]

I think this case is interesting in that it tests the distinction. It isnt a government agency, but it is 100% government owned and provides a public service.

I could see an argument that delivery is not a de jure function of government, but it certainly seems to a de facto function of government.

If a country delegates the execution of it's obligations to a private party, I would expect that it is still responsible for their fulfillment.

[Jensson]

Private

"The owners of PostNord Group are the state of Sweden (60 percent) and the state of Denmark (40 percent)."

It was a merger between the two countries postal services that were created over 300 years ago, it still has no private shareholders. It is still very closely tied to government rulings and laws around postal services.

[JumpCrisscross]

> still very closely tied to government rulings and laws around postal services

Sure. But you can't sue Fannie Mae for denying you guarantees under the equal protection clause.

[Jensson]

But there are laws around post packages similar to the US common carrier laws, you can't just reject packages due to not liking the sender or recipient. Every country has such laws around important services.

[paulddraper]

But if Fannie Mae is unable or unwilling to perform the governmental functions it is contracted for, the government must find a new contractor who will, yes?

Unless the law specifically enshrines the privilege of one named private party above others?

Any of that make sense?

[gabeaweg]

Is there a law saying that Fannie Mae is the only company that can do X? Because that's the case with postnord: only they can handle these plates, by law.

[whats_a_quasar]

From that link:

> "The owners of PostNord Group are the state of Sweden (60 percent) and the state of Denmark (40 percent)"

So no, it's a state-owned company. And most national postal services have some sort of equal-service guarantee in law, though I don't know about Sweden.