The Northern Illinois Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organized two separate rallies on Friday in Rockford and DeKalb calling to save the United States Postal Service.
Alyson Broman Conn, a retired nurse, stood outside of the Rockford post office holding a sign that said “Fire DeJoy,” referring to the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. DeJoy recently rolled back some controversial operational changes at the post office.
Broman Conn said that DeJoy isn’t the guy for the job.
“The post office is not a business," she said. "It's a public service. So someone who wants to run it, the way they would run a profit making business is in the wrong line of work.”
Thomas Chennell is one of the organizers with the DSA. He said that it’s irresponsible to target workers in the middle of an economic and health crisis.
“We're not only disrupting, like, the flow that goes to people's homes for medications," he said. "We're disrupting communities where good paid workers are now going to be displaced."
The DSA will hold another rally in Rockford on Labor Day.
On Saturday, the U.S. Housepassed legislation to block operational changes that Democrats and some Republicans fear could jeopardize mail-in voting.
- Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco is a 2020 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project which is a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms.
