Postal workers and supporters rally against Trump/Muck plans to privatize the Postal Service

"The White House’s threat to privatize the United States Postal Service is unconstitutional and illegal," said Jim Langlois, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 55.

United States Postal Service (USPS) workers in cities across the country held rallies against the Trump/Musk proposal to privatize the 250-year-old postal service. In Providence, nearly 300 postal service workers and supporters gathered at the Rhode Island State House to signal their strong opposition.

Here’s the video:

Evan Cohen: I’m a letter carrier and the President of the Rhode Island State Association of Letter Carriers. We’re here to stop the privatization and disbanding of the Postal Service. We’ve been around for over 200 years, delivering to every door every day, seven days a week. We want to keep that going. We deliver 300 million pieces of mail daily to over 167 million households. We cannot stop that. People rely on us. People get their medication from us. People get their bills. In the rural community, we’re their only lifeline, and we do not want to stop that.

We do not want to disband the Postal Board of Governors. We’re independent. That’s what keeps us special. It’s in our name, United States Postal Service. We’re not a business. We are a service. We also don’t need the Postal Regulatory Committee destroyed. We do not want to outprice people who need us and use us every day. We need common sense solutions to be done, not the radical destruction of the Postal Service.

Everybody here, each one next to you, supports the Postal Service in some way or another. Whether you work here, have family here, or rely on the postal service - everyone supports it for their own reasons -for their livelihood or their families. I do it for my family to make a living. That’s what I’m out here for.

I appreciate all the other unions that showed up here today. I appreciate everyone who came out. It makes a big difference when everybody can come together and support the Postal Service.

Jim Langlois, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 55 in Pawtucket, representing letter carriers in Pawtucket, Lincoln, Cumberland, Central Falls, Woonsocket, and Smithfield: There would be more people here, but as all of you know, we deliver more than just letters. We also deliver packages- even on Sundays, so right now, throughout our great State and the entire Country, thousands of our letter carriers deliver parcels and important medicine to our customers.

Rallies like this are being conducted all over our country today. The White House’s threat to privatize the United States Postal Service is unconstitutional and illegal, so I ask, Do we want the United States Postal Service privatized?

Crowd: Hell no!

Jim Langlois: I can’t hear you. Do we want the United States Postal Service privatized?

Crowd: Hell no!

Jim Langlois: The Postal Service is older than our country and is enshrined in the Constitution. The Constitution gives Congress, not the President, a key role in setting postal policy. So why are we fighting?

• We are fighting for the jobs of 640,000 Postal Service employees and at least 73,000 veterans.

• We are fighting to uphold our universal service obligation, delivering 376 million pieces of mail and packages to nearly 169 million delivery points every single day nationwide.

• We are fighting to protect one of the nation’s most beloved public agencies. The United States Postal Service isn’t partisan or political, and it’s consistently ranked among the most trusted government agencies.

• We are fighting to uphold the bond between us and our customers. We love our customers and watch out for the residents and businesses we serve. Letter Carriers are the eyes and ears of America’s neighborhoods - all the neighborhoods.

• We are against privatization efforts or reorganizational mandates that threaten our jobs, the Postal Service as we know it, and most importantly, our customers.

Jim Langlois: I ask again if we want the United States Postal Service Privatized.

Crowd: Hell no!

Jim Langlois: The 295,000 active and retired National Association of Letter Carriers members have a message to deliver: Hands off the Postal Service. Any effort to privatize or restructure the United States Postal Service directly threatens the universal service every American relies on.

I have heard that nobody thinks about the electricity until the lights go out. We cannot allow the lights to go out on the United States Postal Service. If we do, the consequences of privatization would be devastating.

For that reason, we must help educate the public about those consequences. Some may think they privatized the US Mail; someone else will bring it. Not so fast!

If the USPS were privatized, millions of households and businesses, especially in rural America, would be hurt. Does anyone think the hardest-to-reach deliveries in rural America would get daily mail delivery if the Postal Service were privatized? Not a single for-profit business would go where our mail trucks go. We provide a service - other companies are profit-driven.

Here are a few consequences customers and Postal Workers would face if the Postal Service were privatized.

• Privatization would have far-reaching effects and Jeopardize the jobs of the 7.9 million people employed by the $1.92 trillion mailing industry.

• Privatization would reduce services to 51.5 million households and businesses in rural communities, where private carriers do not deliver

• Privatization would raise shipping costs and drive inflation higher for businesses and consumers.

Jim Langlois: As I mentioned, the Constitution gives Congress, not the President, a key role in setting postal policy. Mandated by federal law, the USPS has been an independent, self-sufficient agency for 55 years.

I am not sitting here today telling you everything at the Postal Service is all hearts and flowers. Things can and should be done. Now is the time for sensible solutions, and here are a couple that come to mind:

First, it has been 15 years since the Postal Regulatory Commission released the recommendations of the Segal Report Audit. Not a single administration has taken action despite having the authority to address the misallocation of pension liabilities that has cost the Postal Service $90 billion.

Secondly, the current investment strategy for the USPS Retiree Health Benefits Fund misses out on hundreds of millions in annual returns.

Finally, the Postal Service is a time-treasured institution. Our first Postmaster General was Ben Franklin, appointed in 1775. We have a rich history. Let us continue on this journey. Please don’t destroy the Postal Service; embrace and protect it.

Patrick Crowley, President, AFL-CIO: Let me share with you some news. We’re not going to let this agency be privatized. We’re going to make sure that the jobs that you perform every single day are protected. But I must tell you something: no one will do it but us. There ain’t no knight in shining armor coming to rescue us. This will take working-class people like us to stick together and fight. We ain’t looking for a hero. We’re going to do it ourselves.

There’s only one thing that’s going to stop an Elon Musk, and that’s worker solidarity. There are 80,000 union members across the State of Rhode Island. There are hundreds of thousands of postal workers, letter carriers, and mail handlers. We will make sure that they hear from us every day. We won’t let them sleep without waking up and wondering what working-class people will do.

We’re going to fight like hell. We’re going to make sure that they don’t take our jobs, that they don’t privatize us, that they don’t ignore us. We will fight until every one of us has the jobs and dignity we deserve. Let’s keep on fighting, and let’s keep on giving them hell.

Solidarity forever.