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For immediate release 05/23/12
Contact: Laurie King (JWJ): ,
Occupy the Post Office:
Portland rallies to demand no cuts, no closures and the resignation of the Postmaster General
Portland, OR – Members of labor unions, faith groups, rural communities, neighborhood organizations, and Occupy will gather to support for the US Postal Service and to demand the resignation of the Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe. The Post Office has long been a symbol of the national commitment to equal access to public services but has increasingly been facing the threat of privatization.
Organizers will host a rally at Terry Schrunk Plaza on Thursday, May 24th at 5pm. Supporters plan to march from the Plaza to a downtown Post Office. They will engage in creative action that highlights the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] in creating the financial difficulties of the Postal Service and to demand the resignation of the Postmaster General for, what organizers say, is his driving the postal service into a death spiral. ALEC is composed of multi-national corporations and elected officials who craft legislation to advance the interests of their membership; they were the target of a national mobilization earlier this year organized by Occupy Portland and the Portland Action Lab.
“People from across Portland are coming out to show that we value our public services and we will not allow those services to be sabatoged by corporate interests. Today we defend the Post Offices, but we know that these public services – our Post Offices, our libraries, our parks, and even our schools are all the target of corporate interests profit-driven machines, says Laurie King, organizer with Occupy the Post Office. “We are coming out to say that all communities deserve access to the mail service, and we will not have it handed over to the highest bidder.”
The Postmaster General is poised to close half the nation’s mail processing plants, including Portland’s Main Office, while reducing hours from 25% to 75% at 13,900 post offices. Donahoe is also pushing for an end to door-to-door and Saturday delivery. Organizers say that the financial problems that USPS is experiencing is due to a funding mandate passed by Congress in 2006 that requires the USPS pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance. This law was a product of ALEC and its Congressional members who focus on shrinking and privatizing public services. Community members are pressuring Congress to pass bills HR 3591 and S 1853 which will repeal the pre-funding mandate and protect the Postal Service.
“USPS is financially sound, the Congressional mandate to pre-pay benefits for 75 years is shackling the Post Office. This is clearly a part of Wall Street’s plan to privatize and destroy an honored institution of our community,” says Lataya Dailey, an organizer with Occupy St Johns. “The Postmaster is complicit in this plan to gut and cut our community Post Offices. We demand he resign immediately.”
This action is part of an on-going effort by a community coalition to support the Postal Service by Occupy St Johns, Occupy Portland, the Rural Organizing Project and Jobs with Justice.
Occupy St Johns and Occupy Portland are part of the international Occupy Movement fighting against the inequality of wealth and power in our existing economic and political systems. Jobs with Justice is coalition of labor organizations and community groups dedicated to protecting the rights of working people and supporting community struggles to build a more just society. JWJ has been an active supporter of public infrastructure like the Post Office since its founding in 1992.
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