Portland postal workrs rally to save Saturday mail delivery

Protesting a proposed end to Saturday mail delivery, employees of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) held a picket and rally July 1 outside Portland’s main post office.

The rally came one day after the Postal Regulatory Commission reported that the Civil Service Retirement System has overcharged USPS more than $50 billion over the last 37 years. USPS faces a severe budget shortfall due to a requirement that it “pre-fund” future retiree healthcare benefits — at a cost of over $5 billion a year for 10 years. To help restore USPS to financial health, postal unions and other stakeholders have been urging Congress to relieve that pre-funding burden, which no other government agency or private business has.

In Portland, picketers heard words of support from Oregon’s top elections official, Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, who donned a T-shirt emblazoned with “Five day is the wrong way.”

The Portland rally was sponsored by American Postal Workers Union Portland-area local, National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82, and National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 315.