Tampa, FL – 50 people rallied in support of union postal workers outside U.S. Representative Kathy Castor's office, Sept. 27. Local Postal Service workers, along with members of the Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), protested against the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. The Act is the cause of major debt and budget problems for the United States Postal Service. Congress, as a result, is pushing to stop all Saturday postal services. Saturday is the one day of the week that many working people can make it to the post office. If the Saturday postal service cuts happen, it will lead to layoffs and increase unemployment for postal workers.

Marisol Marquez of Tampa SDS stated, “Big business and the Republican Party in Congress are the ones attacking public services and the postal service, just like they are attacking public education. They claim the Postal Service is to blame for the budget problems, but the fact is they are setting them up to fail. The postal service was founded during the American Revolution and has never had a budget crisis up until now. The real problem is the rich and their puppets in Congress. They do not care about regular people.”

The protest brought together both workers and students. Statewide in Florida, students are fighting against massive budget cuts at their universities. SDS plans to protest against tuition hikes as high as 15% at universities across Florida, including a rally at the University of South Florida in Tampa on Oct. 4, at Cooper Hall. For both students and workers, the federal, state, and local budget crises are forcing them to fight back. The Sept. 27 rally ended with Representative Castor greeting the union workers outside and lending her support. She has signed on to help protect Saturday postal services and pledges to fight on workers’ behalf. Union workers and their allies, from Wisconsin to Florida, are becoming active in the fight back against budget cuts and privatization of social services, schools, and now, the U.S. postal service.

#TampaFL #postalWorkers #TampaBayStudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #PostalAccountabilityAndEnhancementActOf2006