Congresswomen Katpur, Brown and Sykes Join NALC Day of Action to Stop Postal Privatization
Rallies against the privatization of mail delivery were held across the country on Sunday, including in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, Cincinnati, Steubenville and Marion. Congresswomen Marcy Katpur spok in Toledo, Shontel Brown spoke in Cleveland and Emilia Sykes spoke in Akron.
Members of the National Association of Letter Carriers and their allies looked to send a message to the federal government and draw attention to the issue.
This was in response to President Donald Trump’s comments about potentially having the Department of Commerce taking over the USPS and the Postmaster General’s announced plans of cutting staff and the USPS budget to align with the administration’s efforts to cut federal spending.
In Akron, NALC Branch 148 President Ben Harris talked about the risk of post office employees losing their jobs and the fact that the USPS covers the entire country at one, solid rate controlled by the government. He said things should stay as they are.
“Right now, the threat of privatization would be selling pieces of the post office off to other people. We don’t want anything for this to be but a service,” Harris said. “People probably don’t realize this, but right now we deliver Amazon, we deliver UPS, we deliver FedEx because it’s too expensive for them to go to certain parts of the country, so they give it to us. They call us ‘the last mile’ often.”