More than 700 protestors gathered near the Southfield Post Office on West 11 Mile Road and another 200 at the Lackawanna County Courthouse Square to protest against the Congress' decision to eliminate the Saturday Mail Service.
As part of a Delivering for America rally, at least 700 people gathered near the Southfield Post Office on West 11 Mile Road and another 200 at the Lackawanna County Courthouse Square to protest against the Congress' decision to eliminate the Saturday Mail Service.
They carried slogans that read "We need Saturday delivery", "Don't dismantle America's Postal Service" and "Six-day, OK, Five day, no way."
"If they take that day off of us, letter carriers across the U.S. are going to lose 22,500 jobs the next day," said Tom Gavin, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Union Branch 17 in Scranton. "This, today, is to alert Congress we plan to fight it."
The announcement to do away with mail service on Saturdays was made Friday and is scheduled to be implemented from August. Though mail to homes and offices will be delivered Monday through Friday, mail to box offices will be delivered Saturdays as well. According to a Congress report, this cut will help save close to $2 billion annually.
Even with such a huge amount of saving being predicted, some eminent officers of the country including state Rep. Marty Flynn, D-113, Scranton; U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-17, Moosic, and state Rep. Sid Michaels Kavulich, D-114, Taylor have voiced their opinion in favor of continuing with the six-day mail service.
"They say, well, it's the email, the Internet, the World Wide Web that is putting the post office out of business," Cartwright said. "Well, I say that (eliminating Saturday delivery) might not be the right way to compete with a faster service, by making yourself slower."
According to a news report by The Times Tribune, the elimination of the Saturday mail service could lead to more than 20,000 jobs cuts in the country. This elimination will affect the senior citizens the most as some of them need their medications to be delivered to them regularly.
