CHICAGO–Union postal workers gathered at Federal Plaza in Chicago to denounce the Trump administration’s reported plans to strip the U.S. Postal Service of its independent status, as well to condemn calls from Elon Musk to privatize the agency.
It was one of the several “Fight Like Hell!” rallies organized across the country Sunday by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). It was held a few days after the American Postal Worker Union’s (APWU) national day of action against the Trump administration’s attempted “illegal hostile takeover” of the Postal Service.
The rally was held a week after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans to cut 10,000 employees over the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program. DeJoy’s announcement includes the slashing of billions of dollars from the agency’s budget, in collaboration with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DeJoy, a Republican donor who owned a non-union logistics company before he was appointed in 2020, said he intends to step down from his current role.
“We need to keep the Postal Service public,” said Keith Richardson, the president of APWU Chicago Area Local 1.
“It belongs to the people. It does not belong to corporations,” Richardson said. “And if billionaires get their hands on the Postal Service, it won’t be around like it is now.”
Last month, Trump said he’s considering merging the Postal Service with the U.S. Department of Commerce. Such a move – which would require an act of Congress – would undermine the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970; an act that prevents the president from having direct jurisdiction over postal service operations. The postal service reported a $9.5 billion net loss for fiscal year 2024, but did report a fourth-quarter profit of $144 million earlier this month.
“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money,” Trump said. “We’re thinking about doing that, and it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better than it has been over the years. It’s been just a tremendous loser for this country.”
As previously reported by People’s World, privatizing the postal service could endanger the jobs of 640,000 unionized workers while raking in $81 billion for Wall Street by selling off “excess” buildings and land, according to a study from Wells Fargo Securities.
Most USPS workers are people of color, women or both. USPS, like federal, state and local governments, has often been a route to better-paying, often unionized jobs for workers who suffered from discrimination in the private sector.
In 2018 during Trump’s first term, a report from the Treasury Department concluded that privatizing the postal service would negatively impact mail access to rural communities. This sentiment was echoed by many who attended Sunday’s rally.
Called a lifeline
“It’s a lifeline, and it serves every person in this country, whether you’re in the middle of downtown Chicago or you’re in the most rural back road in Illinois,” said Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim.
Many warned that services would not only be reduced but would be more expensive if the postal service were privatized.
“It would be a hard hit, not simply just for the jobs that would be potentially lost, but also the increased prices,” said Monet S. Wilson, 2nd Ward Alderwoman for Calumet City.
“Everything, when privatized, we see the pricing increases for the average consumer,” Wilson said. “So my constituents who are on fixed incomes would have a hard time getting their prescriptions by mail. A lot of my constituents are up in age or senior. Everybody doesn’t have a computer in their home, so they may be limited with the communications they receive. Small businesses would be affected as well.”
Among the other politicians who spoke at the rally were Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who connected the postal workers’ efforts to those of other public service workers whose jobs are threatened by Musk’s DOGE. Musk, the world’s richest person and an advisor to President Trump, called for the Postal Service and Amtrak to be privatized earlier this month.
“They need to hear it from sea to shining sea, we are going to make sure that we protect all of our public accommodations,” Mayor Johnson said. “Whether it’s the mail, whether it’s education, whether it’s justice, whether it’s the environment, we are fighting for the working people of this country.”
The rally included calls for everyday Americans to get involved and protect the postal service and other federal agencies; from grassroots organizing to contacting local, state and federal representatives.
“People have to stop being bystanders. And there’s way too many people sitting on those bar stools, sitting on the couches; bystanders watching all this going on. And they need to get up and get active and speak out,” said Don Villar, secretary-treasurer for the Chicago Federation of Labor.
“We need to all work together,” Villar said. “We need to educate the public, educate people on what’s at stake. A lot of people when they find out what’s happening, they get up and they realize ‘Whoa, you can’t do that!’ And these are all vital services. Everybody depends on these vital services in one form or another.”
Those interested in organizing to support public service workers in their community can visit www.savepublicservices.com, sponsored by the Federal Unionists Network.
This story includes quotes gathered by the Chicago Tribune and ABC7 Chicago.
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