With expressed keen interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks. In response, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) held rallies nationwide on Sunday, 23rd of March.

The rallies stand against in protest to any private situation or mandated reorganization of the postal service. They are asking people to let their congresspeople and senators know to not dismantle the postal system. More details on the specifics on each side can be found here.

There were two rallies held in the Twin Ports, one in Superior, and the other in Duluth. Superior saw over 50 people show up within the hour as Duluth was met with over 200 people showing up to protest outside federal buildings.

The Rallies to defend the U.S. Postal Service

NALC is holding urgent rallies to oppose the reported efforts to take away the independence of the U.S. Postal Service and degrade its universal delivery mandate, which would affect every local resident, business, organization, and neighborhood.

They reported that attempts to privatize will reduce services to 51.5 million households and businesses in rural communities, where private carriers do not deliver. This would also be raising shipping costs and driving inflation higher for businesses and consumers. The president of Branch 114 in Duluth, TJ Lydon, spoke about what this could look like for the Northland.

“In the Northland, we could be in a situation where instead of getting your packages of mail at your home, you may have to go to a location and pick them up yourselves, and that would obviously cost people a lot of time and money.”

The Letter Carriers deliver 376 million pieces of mail to nearly 169 million delivery points, supporting a $1.92 trillion mailing industry. USPS is known for ensuring the delivery of medications, ballots, and essential packages. NALC reported that any efforts to privatize or restructure USPS threaten 640,000 postal jobs, including more than 73,000 veterans.

Voices of the Rallies

Among the people showing up were elected officials, letter carriers, as well as people who work in other areas of the post office. This with everyone else who showed up to support and let their voice be heard.

Terese Tomanek, President of City Council in Duluth as well as Former letter carrier, spoke on the importance of the United States Postal Service.

“This is a service that we provide to the people of this nation. And it is a mandate, a universal mandate that we deliver the mail to every person, no matter where they live. If we privatize the postal service, you can imagine that those rural people are going to be cut off, they will be more isolated and they are not going to get their essential mail in a timely manner.”

With privatization comes the possibility that packages and mail could only be picked up at the post office, those rallying spoke about how it affects everyone. “We were talking about the people in rural areas could be affected,” said Lynette Erickson, President of the local Branch 337 of the NALC. “They would take that delivery away from them and they wouldn’t be able to get important mail.”

The National Association of Letter Carriers says these rallies are just a starting point. The big message they want to share is to educate our neighborhoods, our communities, our friends, families, and relatives to reach out to our congressmen and our senators and let them know that we value and treasure the Postal Service.

To be notified or future events or ways to help, the NALC Zenith Branch 114 asks to send a text 218-461-9715.