Postal workers across the country opposed the demolition of the US Postal Service on Sunday.
The National Association of Letter Careers (NALC) has planned meetings in more than 200 cities and warned that efforts to privatize or restructure agencies are a threat to employment and the services Americans rely on.
Newsweek reached out to NALC, USPS and the White House by email for comment.
Why is it important?
It was reported in February that President Donald Trump was considering plans to move USPS to the Commerce Department. Trump and his allies have also shown that they are willing to privatize their services.
Public email systems have long faced fundraising issues and are a point of contention for many managers. It employs over 600,000 people, making it one of the largest employers in the country.
Earlier this month, Postmaster Louis DeJoy told Congress that USPS plans to cut 10,000 jobs through a voluntary early retirement program over the next 30 days. Dejoy added that the agency will work with Elon Musk’s government efficiency to tackle the “big problems” of the agency that has struggled financially in recent years.
Postal workers also opposed the threat to the USPS at a nationwide demonstration on Thursday.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
What do you know
Hundreds of postal workers gathered Sunday to protest against Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, Houston, Washington, D.C. and other cities, according to reports and social media posts.
In Chicago, according to a previous post on Twitter X of the Chicago Labor Federation, Federal Square “like hell, like a fight” is wearing workers who say they will “send a clear message to Trump & Mask.”
The post added: “If you think you’re going to privatize USPS, you’re in the fight!
Rep. Maxine Waters and Senators Dick Durbin and Tina Smith were among those who joined the protest Sunday in support of postal workers.
Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, said Doge was engaged in a “hostile takeover” of USPS in a protest attended by nearly 200 people in front of the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, MPR News reported.
Meanwhile, Texas representative Al Green told Houston protesters he would not support the privatization of USPS and would challenge DeJoy’s cut proposal, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The NALC Flyer, advertising Sunday’s protests, said the efforts to privatize or restructure the USPS were a “direct threat” to 640,000 postal employees and “universal services that all Americans rely on,” particularly those in rural America.
The flyer points out that such proposals are “illegal and unconstitutional.” This is because the Constitution “gives “the Congress, not the president, a key role in setting up postal policy.”
“The USPS, mandatory by federal law, has been an independent, self-sufficient institution for 55 years.”
What people are saying
President Donald Trump said on February 21: “We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose a lot of money. We’re thinking about doing that. And it’s going to be a merger, but it will remain a postal service and I think it’ll be much better.”
According to Reuters, Elon Musk said at a meeting in early March: “The logic is that we need to privatize something that can be rationally privatized. For example, I think we need to privatize the post office and Amtrak.
NALC National wrote to X on Sunday: “Undoubtedly, this is an attack on letter carriers on all 640,000 postal employees, the 8 million jobs attached to the USPS. A $1.9 attack on 51.5 million rural households and businesses through the core industry of our economy, the 300 million Americans who rely on the USPS.”
Willie Ferguson, a 48-year post office veteran and president of NALC Chapter 283, told the Houston Chronicle:
Senator Dick Durbin said in a video posted to X: “The US postal service was created by the Constitution, and most people don’t know that, but they know that they mail the postal service six days a day and perform the valuable function of binding America.
Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat from Wisconsin, wrote about X:
Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, wrote X:
“Postal workers provide important constitutional services and ensure that people have medicines, bills and pay on time. The sustained efforts by DeJoy, Musk and Trump to dismantle the post offices are an attempt to cut off the lifelines of people in Minnesota and America. I’m on the side of postal workers.”
What will happen next
Dejoy told Congress that 10,000 jobs would be eliminated by mid-April. His letter did not provide details or timelines about when Doge would begin working on USPS.
Efforts to integrate USPS into the Department of Commerce may not be possible without the actions of Congress.
But efforts to restructure agencies or cut jobs could face further protests and court challenges.
