CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Chanting “We deliver” as they marched around the Cedar Rapids Main Post office Sept. 27, postal workers hoped to collect public support for legislation to alleviate the need for closing hundreds of facilities and the loss of thousands of jobs.

Four unions had an informational rally to educate the public about the possibility the Unites States Postal Service will shift some mail handling and processing services performed in Cedar Rapids to Milan, Ill.

“We’re not trying to be negative,” said Kelly Steinke, a letter carrier in Cedar Rapids for 18 years and the American Association of Letter Carriers’ 2nd District representative.

The postal workers are encouraging passage of HR 1351, which has bipartisan congressional support and 205 co-sponsors. That includes 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack who expressed concern that Iowa would be “affected disproportionately” by those closings.

“Every household in this country and many small businesses in cities and small towns alike depend on reliable postal services,” Loebsack said. “It is critical that we do everything that we can to maintain our local Post Offices, because in these difficult economic times we cannot afford to lose the thousands of jobs that closures and consolidation are expected to eliminate.”

In Cedar Rapids, about 200 people work at the post office including 160 clerks and maintenance personnel, and 34 mail handlers. Union representative estimate half or more of those jobs could be lost if the USPS carries through on its plans.

People coming and going from the post office tended to agree with the position of the rally sponsors.

“You got to feel for them,” said Kevin McIntyre of Cedar Rapids after signing a petition calling on Congress to pass HR 1351. “It would affect everyone because it would slow delivery.”

Overnight delivery would likely become a thing of the past, said Susan Black of Cedar Rapids, who retired after 31 years with the USPS as an information technology specialist.

That was enough to get David Melsha of Cedar Rapids to sign the postal workers petition.

“A couple of weeks to get mail?” he said. “That’s not going to be good.”

Melsha recognized that the volume of mail has been decreasing as people use the Internet to pay bills and conduct other business. However, Steinke pointed out that as people order more goods online it increases the demand for the USPS’s “last mile” service – delivering packages for UPS, FedEx and other private carriers. It saves the private carriers and their customers money because the USPS universal network delivers for less.

Mail delivery is one of the “fundamentals of America,” added Pierre Saba of Cedar Rapids a letter carrier for 10 years.

The rally was organized by the – the Letter Carriers, American Postal Workers Union, National Postal Mail Handlers Union and National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association after the postmaster general announced that the Cedar Rapids mail processing and distribution center might be downsized or closed as early as February.

The USPS, which has not been tax-supported in 30 years, announced Sept. 15 it will conduct feasibility studies to determine whether the operations of mail centers in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo should be consolidated with centers in Milan, Ill, and Des Moines, respectively.

Faced with declining mail volume and revenue, the USPS is considering closing or consolidating as many as 250 processing facilities and shedding 35,000 jobs. Since 2006, it has closed 186 facilities, removed more than 1,500 pieces of mail processing equipment, eliminated 110,000 jobs through attrition and reduced costs by $12 billion.”

Passage of HR 1351 would alleviate the financial burden that stems from a congressional requirement to pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years within the decade, said 18-year postal worker Ken Hepker of Center Point, branch president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Under current legislation, the USPS is paying out of its operational budget for retirement benefits for people who are not even born, according to the unions.

According to the unions, the cost has been $21 billion since 2007 and accounts for 100 percent of the postal service’s red ink.