DENVER – Less than a week before their contract expires, postal workers rallied Thursday in more than 85 cities in 36 states. Sally Davidow, spokeswoman with the American Postal Workers Union, says the protests are part of bringing consumer issues to the bargaining table, demanding shorter lines, quicker mail delivery and new services such as postal banking.

“There are people out there who want to privatize the Postal Service,” says Davidow. “So they’re starving it of funds and driving down service so the profitable routes can be picked off by private businesses who stand to make a buck.”

She says returning banking services to post offices would provide 10 million low-income Americans, who don’t have a bank account, an alternative to costly payday-lending stores.

John Ancona, president with the Denver Metro APWU, says cuts have hurt performance.

“The mail is being delayed,” says Ancona. “A letter that used to take overnight to get across town now is taking 3-to-5 days or even longer.”

The Postmaster General told Congress the agency lost $5.5 billion in 2014, even after cutting 3,000 jobs and consolidating mail routes and processing centers. Davidow argues the agency isn’t broke, and its so-called financial troubles are a manufactured crisis.

“It’s a result of a unique requirement that only the Postal Service faces, to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees 75 years in advance,” he says.

That requirement was imposed by Congress in 2006. Davidow notes, no other government agency, or private company, is required to pay that far in advance, and without that expenditure, the Postal Service has been making a profit and will again in 2015.

Ancona says all this happens without taxpayer support.

“Not one dime comes from taxpayers’ money. It comes from everything we sell including stamps and envelopes,” he says. “Everything we sell over the counter when you come to the post office is how we make all our money.”