Over 100 folks gathered on the southern Sunday of the Federal Plaza to protest in opposition to the plans of the Trump administration to maneuver the postal service below the United States Department and asks to denationalise the company.
During the occasion, postal employees – accompanied by a few of their youngsters – wore crimson shirts who stated “battle like hell” and sang songs like “Not like us” by Kendrick Lamar. Many indicators that stated “We should not on sale” and “Infernal no to privatization”. They have been reached by employees from different native and state sectors and politicians.
The administration of President Donald Trump plans to maneuver the postal service Under The Department of Commerce, which might have stripped the Agency of its independence. In current years, since typically he has fought to remain afloat, the postal service additionally has Fighted calls from Trump and others who’re privatized. Postal employees warn that privatization would reduce jobs and result in diminished companies and better costs, which might significantly affect folks in rural areas.
“Do you assume that privatizing the postal service is a good suggestion or a foul concept?” The American senator Dick Durbin requested the group, who shouted again, “unhealthy concept”.
“We want that you just not solely current at this occasion, however to introduce you for the postal service, which was there for America for 250 years,” stated Durbin. “I’ve three phrases with which I wish to depart you: … battle like hell.”
The publish workplace was created through the second continental congress in Philadelphia in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin grew to become the primary postmaster basic. In 1872, the congress known as him a division of government department. But this modified after an eight -day postal strike on wages and advantages in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the legislation on postal reorganization, which made it an impartial self -financing company known as the United States postal service.
Today, the USPS takes about 640,000 employees answerable for delivering mail, medicines, electoral votes and packages throughout the nation, from inner cities to rural areas and even the distant islands. Postal employees remained in service through the Pandemia di CoronavirusWhen the union of American postal employees states that over 200 staff died.
“The USPS has at all times been a trusted associate for the homeowners of small companies,” stated Holly Kim, treasurer of the county of Lake, who advised a narrative of how his mother and father entrusted themselves to the USPI for his or her small companies. “It is an anchor of salvation and serves each individual on this nation, whether or not you’re in the midst of the middle of Chicago or that you’re in essentially the most rural highway of the Illinois.”
Dupage’s county worker Jean Kaczmarek shared that feeling. “There is just no different option to attain our residents.”
Kaczmarek stated that the County of Dupage has began to ship the playing cards to over 98,000 residents for the subsequent elections. “By the top of the week, we had been receiving calls, ‘Thank you very a lot. I had my vote by mail.’ Not simply thank us, “he stated. “Thanks the brothers and sisters of the United States postal service.”
Hundreds of cities within the United States additionally stored gatherings on Thursday opposing the plan of the Trump Administration as a part of a day of nationwide motion organized by American Postal World Unionwhich outlined the plan an “unlawful hostile acquisition”.
At the start of this month, General Postmaster Louis Dejoy Annuncied plans To reduce 10,000 staff and billions of {dollars} from the postal service finances, which plans to do with the help of the Elon Musk authorities’s effectivity division. Musk additionally has previously He stated he helps the privatization of USPS.
Initially USPS has introduced the plan to chop the workers of the service by way of a voluntary early retirement program over the last days of the administration of President Joe Biden in January, however on the time he didn’t embody the variety of employees who anticipated to go away.
DeJoy, a republican donor and former proprietor of a logistics firm, was appointed to information the postal service of the United States through the first time period of Trump in 2020. He confronted repeated challenges throughout his mandate, together with the pandemic, Electoral mail vote AND efforts to stem losses by way of price and repair cuts.
He introduced a reversal plan of 10 years final yr. In February, Dejoy stated plans to resign And he requested the Board of Directors of the Governors to start out in search of his successor.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who attended Sunday’s occasion, underlined the significance of defending the postal service.
“It was the US postal companies and the laborious folks of this nation to ensure our democracy through the American revolution. It was additionally the postal employees who ensured that the message of the abolitionists spent everywhere in the world,” stated Johnson on the group on Sunday.
“It would be the employees who shield our democracy in 2025 and past,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed.
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