Aug. 22 saw demonstrations in support of the U.S. Postal Service at hundreds of post offices around the country. At a rally at the Midway Post Office in Southeast Portland, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden was in attendance, as was State Sen. Shamia Fagan, a candidate for Oregon secretary of state, and State Rep. Tawna Sanchez (D-43).
Rally goers called for the resignation of recently-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill similar to one approved by the U.S. House a month ago. The bipartisan House bill provides $25 billion to help get USPS through the pandemic, and it stops DeJoy from implementing draconian operational changes until January 2021.
In recent weeks Trump and DeJoy have removed and destroyed mail sorting machines and removed street drop boxes from hundreds of post offices throughout the country. The changes have resulted in mail delays that could potentially threaten mail-in voting in November. Trump opposes mail-in balloting.
In Portland, Wyden said the changes President Trump is pushing are for political gain, but will have drastic consequences for people every day.
“One out of five prescriptions gets delivered by USPS” he said. The national AFL-CIO’s Union Label and Service Trades Department said in a statement: “This attack on the USPS is just another, in a long line of attempts by this Administration to privatize the Postal Service. For years, Trump has wanted to sell the USPS. We cannot allow that to happen, not now, not ever.”
