Portland, Oregon

Despite heavy rain, over 150 protesters rallied at the East Portland Post Office Feb. 23, to stop Trump’s attacks on the USPS and “Fight like hell” for living wages, an end to mandatory overtime and no two-tier workforce system for postal workers. For over an hour talks were bolstered by the steady stream of honks from supporters in passing cars.

Trump has threatened to put the USPS under the control of the Commerce Department, an executive branch takeover of the county’s postal service which has operated independently since 1970. The American Postal Workers Union (APWU)  says these threats look like steps in privatizing the postal service. Trump’s announcement came after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced his resignation on Monday, Feb. 24.

Laurie Wimmer, Executive Secretary Treasurer of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, said that the country is being run by a billionaire oligarchy which is so bad even Dejoy is quitting.

Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Tiffany Koyama Lane, the president and vice president of the Portland City Council, spoke to the crowd about deteriorating working conditions postal workers have been facing. Pirtle-Guiney said: “Mail carriers are overworked and underpaid. Turnover of new hires is close to 50%. Service is suffering.”

Theresa Dunas, National Association of Letter Carriers Executive Board member, told the crowd, “Privatization would really hurt a lot of rural people, minorities and low-income people.”

In a Statement on the APWU website, President Mark Dimondstein wrote: “Any attack on the Postal Service would be part of the billionaire oligarch coup, directed not just at the postal workers our union represents but the millions of Americans who rely on the critical public service our members provide every single day.

“The public Postal Service is the low-cost anchor of a $1.2 trillion mail and shipping industry, which supports more than seven million jobs in communities across the country.

“Efforts to privatize the Postal Service, in whole or in part, or to strip it of its independence or public service mission, would be of no benefit to the American people. Instead, it would drive up postage rates and lead to reduced service, especially to rural America.” (tinyurl.com/ye2xkck2)

The Postal Service employs nearly 73,000 military veterans. Dan Shea, president of Portland Veterans for Peace, told the audience that the post office is one of the largest employers of veterans in the country. Shea described how exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam resulted in the loss of his child and caused him to develop skin cancer. He said that like others in this country who rely on the USPS to distribute critical prescriptions, “I depend on the Postal Service to regularly deliver my skin cancer medicine.”

The 200,000 postal carriers in the National Association of Letter Carriers are staging rallies across the country to fight for a fair union contract.

They demand, “Hands off the people’s postal service! U.S. mail is not for sale!”