As part of a nationwide campaign against privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 333 rallied on Sunday outside the American Legion Post 80.

Beginning around 1 p.m., demonstrators lined up along Main Street with signs reading “Fight Like Hell” and “Hell No to Privatization.” Dozens of similar events have been held across the country to oppose federal attempts at privatizing or restructuring the postal service, which would endanger millions of jobs and reduce mailing service to rural communities, according to a union flyer.

The Trump administration is reportedly evaluating plans to fire the Postal Service’s Board of Governors and place the agency under the Department of Commerce, a cabinet-level office. Such an action would conflict with the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which abolished the U.S. Post Office Department and replaced it with the Postal Service, an “independent establishment of the executive branch.”

Roger Martinkovic, the president of the local union chapter, spoke first and urged rallygoers to contact their elected representatives and the White House, saying every cellphone call is power “in your hand.” He said privatization cannot legally be done via executive order and would jeopardize mailing services for millions of homes.

“What will happen if the post office is privatized?” Martinkovic asked. “Those 51 million people will no longer have delivery. If they want to get their mail, they’re going to have to drive to the nearest post office in a big city and get it from a post office box.”

“So, my point here is, everybody here, if there is a call to arms, if there is a day of action, please use your cellphone,” he continued. “You have the power.”

Michael Dundon, a Democrat who serves as City Council president, spoke next on the importance of standing together to protect workers’ rights, which he said are “under attack” by the Trump administration. Dundon, who is also the vice president of the Broome-Tioga Central Labor Council, said he will continue rallying in support of organized labor “as a union member myself.”

Kevin VanKuren, the branch’s head director of retirees, said a congressional committee will discuss legislation this week that he believes will decimate labor unions. One of these bills would allow an incoming president to terminate provisions in collective bargaining agreements with public-sector unions and nullify sections that conflict with an executive order or presidential memorandum.

Reflecting on past efforts to protect workers’ rights, VanKuren discussed the Social Security Fairness Act, which Joe Biden signed about two weeks before leaving office. The law eliminated two decades-old provisions that together “reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits of over 3.2 million people” who received work pensions from employers that do not withhold social security tax, the agency’s website states. In light of the long battle to restore these benefits, VanKuren told protesters to “be vigilant” and stay informed moving forward.

Another speaker, Steve Pitonyak, said that while privatization has been discussed for decades, the threat today is more acute.

“The difference is, now, we now have all of our leadership in Congress that matters, and our president and Mr. Musk in the past three months have all come out and spoken in support of privatization — all of our leaderships,” said Pitonyak, a letter carrier for more than 27 years. “Now, that’s never happened before.”

Musk, head of the newly formed cost-cutting initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency, said the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak should be privatized during a March 5 virtual Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom conference. Louis DeJoy, who resigned on Monday from his role as postmaster general, agreed nearly two weeks ago to work with Musk on cutting costs and improving efficiency.

Pitonyak said the financial net loss at the postal service, totaling $9.5 billion last fiscal year, should be addressed, but that “privatization is not it.” After he concluded, a retired communications worker spoke to the crowd, saying the push for privatization “has nothing to do with saving money” and will instead enrich a few wealthy individuals.

“If you think about it, Putin did the same thing in Russia,” he said. “He got all his billionaire friends, and they formed an oligarchy, and that seems to be going on in Washington right now.

Adrian Tauterouff, the branch secretary, was the final speaker. Tauterouff said the administration is purposely “flooding the zone” to discourage people from organizing and pushing back. He implored protesters to pick up information sheets with phone numbers to the U.S. Capitol switchboard and the White House Comment Line.

Fact sheets, messaging forms and union shirts were distributed outside the building. Volunteers from a local Working Families Party chapter also tabled, handing out unionist literature.

The Trump administration has already reshaped several executive departments and agencies. The president signed an executive order last week calling for the Department of Education to shut down after firing about half of its staff. The administration also planned to fire thousands of government employees who were hired within the past year.

“We need to keep coming together,” a federal worker at the protest who was granted anonymity due to uncertainty surrounding ongoing threats from DOGE. “We need to stand as one voice because the services provided by the federal government are often not understood or appreciated, and they will be when they are gone and they’ll be really hard to get back if we lose them.”