BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — In response to DOGE and planned cuts to the U.S. Postal Service, our local postal workers union came out Thursday to rally asking for support for their service.
- Earlier this month, the postmaster general announced his plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions from the US Postal Service budget.
- Brendan Buettner, local APWU president said the cuts to the postal service would not only hurt mail carriers, but the residents they serve, especially in rural areas.
In response to DOGE and planned cuts to the U.S. Postal Service, our local postal workers union came out Thursday to rally asking for support for their service.
Earlier this month, the postmaster general announced his plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions from the US Postal Service budget.
In a letter Postmaster General Louis DeJoy wrote to lawmakers, he said he plans to work with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program. DeJoy also said he's working with DOGE to help the agency with identifying further inefficiencies.
"I like to invite President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Elon Musk and Postmaster DeJoy to come to Bakersfield so they could visit postal sites," said Brendan Buettner, local APWU president. "So they could show them that we are hardworking Americans and we're here to handle business and serve America like they do."
Buettner joined the postal service in 2014 after getting out of the army. He said the cuts to the postal service would not only hurt mail carriers, but the residents they serve, especially in rural areas.
"Postmaster Lewis DeJoy put out in a letter yesterday that he wants to get rid of the least offices that are post offices, and that's the small AOs in rural America," Buettner stated. "Those go away, those people in rural America, they're gonna have to possibly drive here to Bakersfield to get their mail, how they gonna get their medications and important documents they need."
Alongside the postal service union stood the letter carriers, like John Ortega, who recently retired after 20 years working here in Bakersfield.
"We're a separate federal agency, we're self supportive and we don't want our customers to lose their service, birthday presents, especially the elderly medicines, somewhere like Bakersfieldl," Ortega said.
While letter carriers are calling out the current administration for budget cuts, healthcare workers and advocates are calling on local leaders like Congressman David Valadao to take action in protecting Medicaid funding.
Sandy Reding, president of the California Nurses Association, said, "As an operating room nurse, I see what happens when people don't have care. If they don't have access to healthcare because their Medicaid benefits are cut, they're going to delay care, end up in the emergency room."
The letter carriers union said they also will be holding a rally this weekend in response to these planned cuts by DOGE.
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