'We are here to help save the post office from being privatized'

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT and KEA-NEA retiree

Despite threatening skies and intermittent rain, about 50 people turned up at Paducah's main post office Sunday afternoon to stand in solidarity with members of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 383 who oppose privatizing the U.S. postal service.

"This is nonpartisan," said Ben Thompson, 383's president. "It is only about policy. We are here to help save the post office from being privatized." 

The Paducah rally was one of dozens sponsored nationally by NALC. Rally goers stood on a sidewalk, held up signs and waved to passing motorists. A few seemed to disapprove of the gathering, but a big majority took notice, honked horns, smiled and waved in support.

"The post office employs about 640,000 Americans of which 30 percent are veterans," Thompson added. "We've gotten wind that they are trying to roll us into the Commerce Department, which would be one of the first steps toward privatizing us."

"They" are President Donald Trump and his administration.

While most in the crowd were from 383, others represented other unions and the community.

Chuck Paisley sported a LiUNA! Local 1214 ballcap and tee shirt. He brought a big orange LiUNA! flag. 

"We do this because all unions need to get together as one union," he said. "We need to show everybody that we are in solidarity and not broken apart."

"We're here to support our postal worker brothers and sisters," said Jerry Sykes, a United Auto Workers retiree. Since [Postmaster Louis] DeJoy took over a few years ago, his objective has been to eliminate the post office by whatever means necessary--to privatize it."

Sykes said thousands of postal employees are military veterans. "The post office has always been a safe haven for veterans to come home to after they serve us-gave us their time and effort to protect our rights. For some reason [the Trump administration has] decided that veterans are not that important any more." 

Skyes said that everything the administration does "is always for the rich, and forget about the common man and woman who is out there trying to make a living for their family. So I'm here today to support my postal workers."  

Jeff Wiggins, the Frankfort-based Kentucky State AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, joined the rally. "An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us," said Wiggins, who lives in Reidland, a Paducah suburb. "We are all here to stand together."

Leslie McColgin, co-leader of Four Rivers Indivisible, came because "we support all the public institutions such as the post office. The post office has been around for a really long time, and we don't want to lose it. We don't want to see it privatized."

Added McColgin, whose group is part of the national Indivisible organization: "This privatization move means that the looters and the tech guys are going to get in there and grift off it, and there's not going to be any oversight that's needed to keep it from getting corrupted."      

Posted on the NALC website is a flier that explains the multiple negative effects of privatization.

ANY EFFORT TO PRIVATIZE OR RESTRUCTURE USPS IS A DIRECT THREAT TO: 

-- 640,000 postal employees, including 200,000 city letter carriers represented by NALC 

-- The universal service every American relies on 

-- Millions of households and businesses, especially in rural America 

THE CONSEQUENCES WOULD BE DEVASTATING: 

-- Jeopardizing the jobs of the 7.9 million people employed by the $1.92 trillion mailing industry 

-- Reducing services to 51.5 million households and businesses in rural communities, where private carriers do not deliver 

-- Raising shipping costs and driving inflation higher for businesses and consumers 

SUCH PROPOSALS ARE ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL: 

-- The Postal Service, older than our nation itself, is enshrined in the Constitution. 

-- The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, a key role in setting postal policy. 

-- Mandated by federal law, USPS has been an independent, self-sufficient agency for 55 years. 

WHY WE'RE FIGHTING:

-- To protect the jobs of 640,000 USPS employees, including 73,000 veterans 

-- To uphold our universal service obligation, delivering 376 million pieces of mail and packages to nearly 169 million delivery points nationwide 

-- To safeguard USPS, one of the nation’s most trusted public agencies 

-- To oppose privatization efforts or reorganizational mandates that would threaten the Postal Service and our jobs