ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — More than 100 letter carriers and their supporters rallied in St. Pete on Sunday as the Trump administration considers moving the U.S. Postal Service under the Department of Commerce.

Vietnam veteran Albert Friedman has been with the U.S. Postal Service for over 40 years.

“My career is in the post office,” said Friedman. “I’ve served the public; I’ve had the same route once for 20 years. Watched kids born grow up and leave to go to school.”

He believes all that could be changing soon.

The Trump administration is looking at eliminating jobs, cutting the budget and there’s talk of privatization.

Carriers said the post office doesn’t rely on taxpayers’ money. They said it’s primarily funded by revenue from postage, products and services. They said privatization will bring job cuts.

“The 640,000 postal employees, there’s over 240,000 city delivery carriers but you want to go privatization they’re not going to hire me as a disabled veteran,” Friedman said.

The proposed merger worries Sharon Leder. 

“I wouldn’t even trust that my correspondence would be private,” Leder said. “I would believe that letters would be opened.”

Organizers like Natasha Patterson said it’s a concern for all families, but especially those in rural communities.

“If they try to cut anything it’s going to be those communities that we serve in those hardest-to-reach areas,” Patterson said. “It could end up costing rural customers more to have the service. There’s too many what-ifs of what happens to rural America. We can’t leave rural America behind.”

Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Pinellas) posted on X on Sunday saying she loves the post office and its employees, but it is far from perfect and in need of reform to make it more efficient generate more revenue and ensure that packages and mail are delivered on time for the American people.