From Staff Reports

A protest to show support for saving post offices and postal jobswas staged Feb. 20 at Pack Square Park in downtown

Chris Berg portrays Ben Franklin

Asheville.

Following the rally, some protesters marched to the Vance Monument and then adjourned to socialize at Pack’s Tavern.

“It’s always slash and burn on the hard-working people of America,” Joanne Guess, president of the Asheville chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, told the crowd of about 60 people.

The crowd included a mix of postal workers, protesters, politicians and candidates.

Guess urged the gathering to press for change in the oversight laws of the U.S. Postal Service, reducing its debt burden and overturning burdensome parts of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.

One specific need change he cited the portion of the act requiring the  Postal Service to prefund retirement benefits for the next 75 years within a 10-year window at a cost of $5.5 billion annually.

Guess said it is crucial to keep six-day delievery and prevent closure of post offices.

As several speakers reiterated, the Postal Service is projected to lose a record $14.1 billion this year.

USPS officials have presented a plan to close 3,700 post offices and 252 mail processing centers, including one in Asheville. The Postal Service has delayed that plan until May.

 Chris Berg, an actor who portrayed Ben Franklin, reminded the crowd — in a brief appearance — that he and the other Founding Fathers included a provision (in the Constitution) for a post office because of the importance of mail delivery. He noted that Franklin was the first postmaster general.

 In his portrayal of Franklin, Berg praised those at the protest for “being willing to fight — in the matters that oppress the common people.” Moreover, he ripped the prefunding law as “absolute nonsense that pays for workers who will not even be hired in 50 years.”

 Other speakers were congressional candidates Cecil Bothwell, Patsy Keever and Tom Hill, all Democrats; Mark Case, president of the WNC Central Labor Council; and Blake Butler, a progressive talk-show host on 880-AM radio station in Fairview.

 Butler noted that, even though the Occupy Asheville tents were gone from the encampment in front of City Hall, the spot where they stood remains hallowed ground.

 “Everyone here wants transparency, accountability and big money out of politics,” he said.

 Butler lamented that “we’ve got elected officicials who vote at us — not with us ... Folks, we’ve got the power to vote them out of office ... It matters because this collective voice is the only thing that can change things.”

 Bothwell asserted, “There should be a lot more people out here.” He blamed the Republican congress for requiring the pension prepayment that is resulting in USPS’s cost-cutting. “Who wouldn’t pay even 75 cents for a first-class letter” to keep from closing the processing center? he asked.

 In addition, Margaret Davison, president of the Edneyville Grange, spoke about how the area needs its post office.