Local letter carriers speak out against proposed changes by Trump administration

SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Local letter carriers are getting louder in voicing their opposition to the Trump administration's efforts in dismantling and privatizing the U.S. Postal Service.

"If we take away the post office, that's the last form that many of these little towns have of community that's left," says Derrick Adkins, NALC Branch 330.

Derrick Adkins says it's about more than just mail.

Adkins is a retired letter carrier and President of the local branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

He helped put South Bend on the map of nationwide rallies on Sunday, sounding the alarm about what can happen to communities that lose their post offices due to cuts by DOGE.

"They claim that they're inefficient, well, yes they are but they serve the community. That's the whole purpose," explains Adkins.

On Monday, Postmaster General Louis Dejoy abruptly stepped down from his position, but before that, he signed an agreement with Elon Musk's DOGE to work on improving efficiency at USPS, including a cut of ten thousand workers and billions of dollars from the budget.

It leaves the more than 600 thousand postal workers in the U.S. with more questions than answers about the future of their jobs.

"We'd like to know what that means for us, but we already know because they've told us in the past, they'd like to close the rural post offices," says Adkins.

Adkins says among impacts like a rise in shipping costs and reducing delivery service to rural homes and businesses, folks who live in those rural communities like Walkerton would most likely need to travel to either South Bend or Plymouth to do their business at a post office.

Kathy Cassady, who lives just a few houses down from the Walkerton post office, relies on it for day-to-day errands.

"It's like 'Oh, I need to buy some stamps, oh I got to drop this in the mail, I got to drop that in the mail,' I just come down here," explains Walkerton resident Kathy Cassady.

It would be yet another government office Cassady has seen come and go in Walkerton.

"We don't have our BMV here anymore, we have to go to South Bend, Plymouth, out of town for that," Cassady says. "It does make it hard and inconvenient."

Though, some locals say they'd give up the convenience if it means cutting out unnecessary government spending.

"We need to go through and try to get rid of the waste and the fraud," says one Walkerton resident.

Adkins says postal workers locally and across the nation will only continue to fight for the constitutional right of postal service.

"We're all hard workers and we will all fight hard also," says Adkins.

Adkins says they're in a bit of a waiting game right now pending what the administration decides to do, but he does say they'll continue to hold more local rallies to support local letter carriers.