West Virginia postal workers and citizens rally against DOGE cuts to U.S. Postal Service
The rallies come after an earlier meeting of American Postal Workers Union (APWU) representatives in Washington DC, said Chris Black, the president of West Virginia APWU.
Although a number of the U.S. postal workers in the nation supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, according to APWU officials, outgoing U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy earlier announced a deal with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut 10,000 postal workers from their jobs.
DeJoy took office under the Trump Administration in 2020 with plans to cut costs. He reduced overtime and late deliveries, but the move resulted in delayed deliveries, according to union officials.
Black said on Thursday, there were discussions of a federal plan to break up the U.S. Postal Service and sell it to private companies.
'If this gets privatized, you're going to see increases of pricing, and lack of service in rural areas, which is about 90 percent of West Virginia,' said Black. 'West Virginians will get hit the hardest, if postal service is privatized.'
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59News reached out to U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito and U.S. Senator Jim Justice on Thursday but did not receive immediate replies.
Black was in Beckley on Thursday afternoon to attend a rally at the main post office in Beckley.APWU Steward John Bannister, who was also at the Beckley rally, said the postal workers at the Beckley office care about their clients; many who rely on them to provide service for medicine, local eBay businesses, and package deliveries.
Privatization would harm rural regions, which often have a more difficult process of attracting private companies.
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'We all live in a rural area, and we will be underserved if they cut down what the post office is,' said Bannister. 'It will go down to two, three day deliveries. That's not enough. What if people have their checks, their medicines they're waiting on? We need to get it to them as fast as we can.'
Citizens also showed up at the rally, holding signs and encouraging local postal workers.
Wes Holden, a veteran who attended the rally, said his worry about the U.S. Post Office is one of many.
'Look at me. I'm a senior citizen, and they're threatening to take away my Social Security and Medicare that I paid into all my life,' said Holden. 'I'm a decorated veteran. I joined the Army when Vietnam was going on. None of these people in Congress, or none of these people from West Virginia that we elected, are veterans and they don't care about veterans. They don't care about the people in West Virginia. That's why I'm out here.'
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Union officials said the U.S. Postal Service is the largest employer of American veterans.
Referring to slashes to some federal agencies by billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump appointed to head DOGE, Holden said that he was 'very upset with what is going on with DOGE' and with elected officials.
'I'm very upset with our Congressional representatives, Shelley Capito, Carol Miller, and ,Justice,' he said. 'They're supposed to be protecting our jobs.'
On Tuesday, Democratic Virginia Congressman Gerry Connelly sent a letter to U.S. Postmaster DeJoy, demanding that DeJoy release to the public the details of the 'deal' he had made with Musk.
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