Post Office workers, supporters confront Postmaster DeJoy

Nine days after an Illinois state demonstration against U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his 10-year “Delivering for America” plan, the Post Office defied objections heard there and countless “listening sessions” and announced that a Quad Cities distribution center will be closed and the work moved to Des Moines.

Although the Quad Cities facility will still process mail, 42 jobs will be lost.

Besides lost jobs, DeJoy’s “reorganization” plan will delay first-class mail, closure of hundreds of postal sorting centers nationwide, and even delay mailed-in ballots in November’s election – enough of a delay that local election authorities will have to throw them out, uncounted, according to Illinois State Letter Carriers Association President Luis Rivas Jr.

“When people don’t get the services they expect from the USPS, that’ll drive people away and we’ll lose even more,” he said. “Our rates are going up and our service is going down.”

Organized by Illinois Letter Carriers, the March 25 informational picket line in front of a hotel where DeJoy spoke in the Chicago suburb saw some 70 demonstrators turn out in a light rain and rally. In addition to Rivas and Central Illinois unionists, other labor and Democratic political leaders lent their voices, from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Congressmen Sean Casten, Bill Foster and Raja Krishnamoorthi, to Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea and activists from the American Postal Workers Union.

Inside the Double Tree Hotel, DeJoy touted his plan to a friendly audience. Outside, the crowd heard speakers criticize the Trump-appointed DeJoy, a major GOP campaign contributor and former CEO of non-union XPO Logistics, a package delivery firm.

DeJoy’s plan has an “insidious agenda of downsizing processing facilities, deliberately slowing down mail delivery, and unjustifiably inflating prices,” Durbin told the crowd. “It undermines the fundamental principle of universal access to reliable postal services for all Americans.

“DeJoy’s actions threaten to unravel the fabric of our communities, particularly those in rural and underserved areas, where timely mail is a lifeline for essential goods, services, and communication. We must send a clear message this scheme, with its blatant disregard for the public good, should be marked ‘return to sender’.”

Protestors said the $40 billion plan will hurt the most vulnerable residents who rely on USPS to vote by mail, receive medication, make and receive payments, and need time-sensitive communications.

 

"If you shut down the postal processing facility in Downers Grove to save money, well, what happens to your postal worker when they're going to show up in the morning? They can't go to Downers Grove to pick up the mail. They have to get up earlier, and maybe they got to drive all the way to Lombard, to Lisle, maybe to Joliet,” said Casten. “This is how you break the postal service. It's not how you deliver the service that we all need.”

 

Despite USPS proceeding with the plan, the word is spreading that service is threatened, commented Peoria letter carrier Vic Murrie, NLAC Assistant Legislative Director for Illinois.

 

“I believe the public is starting to realize the enormity of the situation and how consolidation will cause delivery delays in the future,” he told the Labor Paper. “All the speakers are against consolidation and the DeJoy 10-year plan.”