Over a hundred people gathered in Federal Plaza midday Sunday to protest the Trump administration’s plans to move the postal service under the U.S. Department of Commerce and calls for privatizing the agency.
Throughout the rally, postal workers — accompanied by some of their children — donned red shirts that said “Fight like hell” and sang along to songs like “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar. Many held signs that said “We are not for sale” and “Hell no to privatization.” They were joined by workers from other industries as well as local and state politicians.
President Donald Trump’s administration plans to move the Postal Service under the Department of Commerce, which would strip the agency of its independence. In recent years, as it’s sometimes struggled to stay afloat, the Postal Service has also fought calls from Trump and others that it be privatized. Postal workers warn that privatization would cut jobs and lead to reduced services and higher prices, which would particularly affect people in rural areas.
“Do you think privatizing the Postal Service is a good idea or a bad idea?” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin asked the crowd, which yelled back, “Bad idea.”
“We need you to not only show up at this rally, but to show up for the Postal Service, which has been there for America for 250 years,” Durbin said. “I got three words I want to leave you with: … Fight like hell.”
The Post Office was created during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin became the first postmaster general. In 1872, Congress named it an executive branch department. But that changed after an eight-day postal strike over wages and benefits in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act, which made it an independent, self-financing agency called the U.S. Postal Service.
Today, the USPS employs about 640,000 workers tasked with delivering mail, medicine, election ballots and packages across the country, from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands. Postal workers remained on duty during the coronavirus pandemic, when the American Postal Workers Union says more than 200 employees died.
“The USPS has always been a trusted partner to small business owners,” said Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim, who recounted a story of how her parents relied on USPS for their small business. “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.”
DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek shared that sentiment. “There’s simply no other way to reach our citizens.”
Kaczmarek said DuPage County has started mailing ballots to over 98,000 citizens for an upcoming election. “By the end of the week, we were receiving calls, ‘Thank you so much. I got my ballot in the mail.’ Don’t just thank us,” she said. “Thank the brothers and sisters of the United States Postal Service.”
Hundreds of cities across the United States also held rallies Thursday opposing the Trump administration’s plan as part of a national day of action organized by the American Postal Workers Union, which called the plan an “illegal hostile takeover.”
Earlier this month, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans to cut 10,000 employees and billions of dollars from the Postal Service budget, which he plans on doing with the assistance Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has also previously said he supports privatizing USPS.
USPS initially announced the plan to cut service employees through a voluntary early retirement program during the final days of the President Joe Biden’s administration in January but at the time didn’t include the number of workers expected to leave.
DeJoy, a Republican donor and previous owner of a logistics business, was appointed to lead the U.S. Postal Service during Trump’s first term in 2020. He has faced repeated challenges during his tenure, including the pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts.
He announced a 10-year turnaround plan last year. In February, DeJoy said he plans to step down and asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who attended Sunday’s rally, emphasized the importance of protecting the postal service.
“It was the U.S. Postal Services and the hardworking people of this country that secured our democracy during the American Revolution. It was also the postal workers that made sure that the message of abolitionists got across the world,” Johnson said to the crowd on Sunday.
“It is going to be the workers that protect our democracy in 2025 and beyond,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed.
