JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Dozens of mail carriers and community members protested against proposed changes to the United States Postal Service at a Jacksonville post office on Sunday.
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Some signs read “No to privatization” while others read “U.S. mail is not for sale.”
This comes after Elon Musk said he believes the postal service needs to be privatized during a conference. The postmaster general also told Congress the USPS plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs over the next 30 days.
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They said their mission is to protect the jobs of 640,000 employees, which includes 73,000 veterans.
Click here to see the full protest flyer.
President Donald Trump has mentioned the possibility of moving the USPS under the United States Department of Commerce and its caused an uproar because it has been its own entity since 1970.
The USPS is actually older than the United States itself.
The union said this could have devastating effects if this were to happen. It could jeopardize the jobs of 8 million people and reduce services to over 51 million households and businesses in rural communities since the private carriers do not deliver to those areas.
The union also expressed concerns about rising shipping costs and inflation.
James Thigpenn, the current president of the Jacksonville National Association of Letter Carriers chapter said he fears what this could mean for everyone.
“It’s going to add a lot more fees and more taxes to the postal service and the price for getting the parcels delivered would not be regulated by federal law and it could go through the roof,” Thigpenn said.
Bob Henning, the former chapter president explained what he thinks the other potential effects could be.
“No background checks on employees, it would not be screened. There would be no regular delivery times, regular mail would affect the advertising agencies because they wouldn’t have door-to-door delivery on a daily basis,” Henning said.
