Save our post office. Help protect union jobs. Santa, sorry my letter is late. Demonstrators carried signs with those and other messages outside a post office on Michigan Avenue Tuesday in Kalamazoo as the American Postal Workers Union rallied in cities across the country, calling for the US Senate to fund the Postal Service and for USPS to undo cuts that have slowed mail service this summer.
Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Postal Service has reduced overtime for workers, junked mail sorting machines and removed mailboxes. That’s raised questions about how USPS will handle a flood of ballots this fall, when many Americans are expected to vote by mail because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s also undermined a service that Americans count on for the timely delivery of everything from prescriptions to chicks.
APWU Southwest Michigan Area Local 143 President Linda Sarratt says elected officials should support an agency that employs veterans and serves rural communities.
“The post office is their hub. It’s where they go to talk to their friends, it’s where they go to talk to people, it’s where they go to get their news of the world,” she said.
Demonstrator Sara Wick added that older Americans, Americans with disabilities and small businesses also rely on the post office.
“And you don’t change things and create some additional anxiety during a pandemic,” she added. “So just get back to work, Senate!”
She was referring to the $25 billion funding package Congress recently passed for the Postal Service. It is unlikely to get traction in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has disparaged the bill on Twitter, accusing Democrats of paranoia over the changes at USPS.
But demonstrator Val Janowski doesn’t think it’s paranoid to worry about those changes. DeJoy is a major donor to President Trump.
“This is a pivotal election and he is doing the bidding of President Trump trying to slow down the mail and he thought he’d get away with it,” she told WMUK. “And he’s not getting away with it. We’re calling him out and we’re calling him out fierce.”
DeJoy told Congress last week that he is not trying to interfere with the election.
