Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced on Thursday that the USPS has ordered 50,000 delivery vehicles through its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) program, which aims to introduce “safer and more environmentally friendly vehicles for our carriers and the communities we serve.” A minimum of 10,019 of the newly ordered vehicles are expected to be electric.

According to documents obtained by Vice, the contract between USPS and manufacturer Oshkosh Defense allows the postal service to order between 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles, with DeJoy initially promising that at least 10 percent of its entire fleet would consist of electric vehicles.

Democratic Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly, who has called for DeJoy’s ouster over the failure to electrify the USPS fleet, initially wanted far more electric vehicles. He introduced legislation earlier in March that would prohibit the USPS from carrying out any purchase of a new fleet of delivery vehicles unless 75 percent of the new vehicles were electric or otherwise emissions-free. The current order calls for 20 percent of the post office’s new vehicles to be electric.

In February, DeJoy said the USPS can’t commit to buying and using an all-electric delivery fleet because of its “dire financial condition,” a statement that came less than two months after Senator Bernie Sanders called DeJoy “the worst postmaster general in the modern history of America.”

Furthermore, the newly announced $2.98 billion contract maintains that both the gas and electric vehicles ordered by the USPS will be built in South Carolina, WHBY reported.

At least one Democrat claims that this is a move to prevent Oshkosh from producing the vehicles in Wisconsin, where the company’s employees are unionized.

“It’s good old-fashioned union-busting, but union-busting for the 21st century,” Tom Nelson, a Wisconsin senatorial candidate, told Newsweek about the unionization politics surrounding the Oshkosh and USPS deal.

“This contract was won specifically by Oshkosh Defense,” he explained. “Everyone assumed that it was going to 578, and that it was going to stay in Oshkosh because that’s who the contract was applied for. And then, it was gonna go to South Carolina. Everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, asked, ‘What is going on?’”

He says that the defense portion of Oshkosh is unionized under Local 578 at the behest of the larger Oshkosh Corp., with production moves into non-union facilities being “the rule” instead of the exception. Because of this, he said the operation should require public and political intervention.

“I believe the Congress must intervene and say that production should happen in Oshkosh,” Nelson continued. “I mean, I don’t think it’s their call alone. I think there’s an argument to make that there should be a public argument, that there should be public consideration, especially since Oshkosh Corp. received approximately $50 million from the state and the city in recent years.”

When asked by Newsweek for information regarding the price comparison between the ordered gas and electric vehicles, the USPS declined to answer.

Update at 3/24/22, 1:18 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.