Fight like hell for our public services

Letter Carriers rally in Boston and nationwide

By: Evan Lee
March 23, 2025 | Opinion

Photo courtesy WCVB Boston

On Sunday, letter carriers nationwide organized to rally against plans by the Trump administration to dismantle the Postal Service and privatize its remains at the expense of the American people.

Privatization, as I wrote in my last post, will only hurt the people as it destroys a fundamental public service that affordably delivers to each and every community in the United States.

No private company can ever replace that when they put profits before people. Without USPS setting the bar, they will raise prices on vital mail, like paychecks and prescription medications, while diminishing services to those who cost more to reach. Some rural communities may be cut off entirely as private companies decide there’s simply not enough profit to be made with them.

The Postal Service delivers for all Americans regardless of profitability. It does not matter how rural, remote, or off the beaten path you may live, you can always count on the US Mail to keep you connected to the rest of the country - all at no taxpayer expense.

That was the vision of the founding fathers when they enshrined us into the Constitution, to help bind the nation together. And this become a mandate we’ve faithfully delivered upon for nearly 250 years since.

We will not sit idly as the Trump Administration tries to destroy 250 years of public service. We will not allow false narratives about USPS to distract from the essential work we do.

Trump, Elon Musk and others who seek to gain from privatization are trying their damnedest to sell that distraction, but the American people aren’t buying it.

For the entirety of this administration so far, they have mocked, harassed, and illegally fired federal workers who provide public services that the American people rely on.

That includes Social Security, which helps ensure elderly Americans can put food on the table, Veterans Affairs that provides healthcare as well as jobs to those who fought to defend this country, and even the Forest Service dedicated to protecting our public lands.

Their so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” has carelessly slashed job after job with little to no regard for the essential services they provide.

In many cases, this has forced the government into inefficient scrambles to rehire fired federal employees who turned out to be vital to national security, like nuclear safety workers at NNSA, or to public health, like bird flu scientists at USDA. Many others who are just as crucial have had their jobs reinstated by federal courts after it was decided their firings were illegal.

And yet just last week, Postmaster Louis DeJoy agreed to allow DOGE into the Postal Service despite how inefficient and costly it has proven itself to be in its mishandling of other federal agencies.

Why would he allow this? Because DeJoy is cut from the same cloth of corporate elites who seek to gain from privatization. He’s the former CEO of XPO Logistics who was appointed by Trump after being one of his biggest campaign donors in 2016.

Private shipping companies and their shareholders have much to gain by dismantling the Postal Service. They’ll happily take over the more lucrative parts of our delivery network while leaving the unprofitable ones to fend for themselves.

Companies like Amazon already refuse to deliver to many rural areas and will hand their packages off to USPS for final delivery instead. Without the Postal Serivice providing this affordable option, there’s no incentive for private companies to continue shipping to these addresses unless they raise prices exponentially.

So that efficiency people like Trump and Musk are trying to peddle is not for us. It’s for those at the top who want to cut public services at our expense and line their own pockets with the savings.

We are not going to stand for that.

As a member of Branch 334 of the National Association of Letter Carriers - representing Ashland, Framingham, and Natick - I was proud to join my fellow postal workers, Congressman Stephen Lynch, and other concerned members of the public at Boston Common today to stand against the privatization of the Postal Service.

And I am proud to continue to stand alongside dedicated members of the federal workforce as a whole to tell Trump that we will Fight Like Hell against any efforts to destroy essential public services that the American people rely on every single day.