CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Gail Burton-Jones worked for 30 years as a letter carrier in Charlottesville, before retiring in 2012. When she hears attacks from the federal government on the U.S. Postal Service, plans to privatize the operation and questions about the security of mail-in ballots, she feels a calling to fight back.

“The Postal Service still means a lot to me,” Burton-Jones told Cville Right Now on Tuesday. “You get to learn the community you’re serving in.”

That’s why Burton-Jones, and about 30 others, demonstrated in front of the Charlottesville post office on the city’s Downtown Mall on Tuesday morning, listening to speakers and chanting their opposition to federal policies they believe will damage the Postal Service.

Cindy Connors has been a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers since 1992. She worked for 23 years in Colorado and now lives in Staunton. While she’s retired from letter carrying, her work for the USPS goes on in the form of advocacy.

“It’s important to me to be out here today to defend the postal service and our right to vote by mail,” Connors told Cville Right Now. “I wanted to be here to support the message. I also value the service we give to our customers. I loved being a part of the community, getting to know the people, looking out for them, serving them. And I’m really concerned about the changes that are happening. We’re not going in the right direction, that’s for sure.”

The event, part of a national day of action aimed at defending the USPS from possible privatization and calls to end mail-in voting, also drew political figures, including Charlottesville City Councilor Michael Payne and 5th District Congressional candidate Tom Perriello.

“Mail-in voting has been incredibly possible with Republicans, Democrats and independents,” Perriello said. “Mail-in voting is incredibly popular with seniors and with young people. We have something that is actually working and bringing people together across the political divide, and now Donald Trump and John McGuire want to declare war on that.”

The USPS has operated as an independent agency since 1970. But on multiple occasions, President Donald Trump has proposed moving the USPS under the umbrella of the Commerce Department and, eventually, privatizing the operation, a response to the heavy financial losses it incurs annually.

Kicking off the event, labor organizer Emily Yen told the crowd that privatization of the Postal Service could leave rural areas without service or subject to price hikes.

Burton-Jones and Connors spoke about the value letter carriers bring to the communities they serve, and activist Anna Malinowski led the demonstrators in a number of pro-Postal Service chants.

Perriello was the day’s final speaker, telling the crowd, “This is a time for officials who are going to stand with the people.”

Afterward, the candidate for the Democratic party’s nomination in the 5th District, told Cville Right Now that privatization of the Postal Service is just an attempt at a cash-grab for wealthy supporters of Trump. He said he worried that privatization could rob senior citizens of an affordable option for prescription drug delivery, among other issues.

“This idea that they want to take something that’s working for our seniors, our veterans and everyday folks, and privatize it so that a couple of donors can get really rich by doing the same thing we always see – they’re going to cut back services to charge you more and give you less – that’s not what we want to see from our Postal Service,” Perriello said. “It’s not what we want to see from public servants up there.”