Sallie Mae employees say Luzerne County wants to save their jobs and they have more than 31 thousand signatures to prove it.

Sallie Mae employee Josh Courter said, "It just means a lot that my people have been able to go out there and help us get this. The community means a lot to me, very excited to see it. "

Courter is one of dozens of Sallie Mae Wilkes-Barre workers that took petitions door to door.

Sallie Mae wants congress to vote against a bill that could cut jobs here at the Wilkes-Barre call center.

The bill is geared to lower student loan interest rates, by allowing students to borrow directly from the government.       

But workers here say students should also have the choice to borrow from a private company like Sallie Mae.

Sallie Mae employee Tracy Stein said, "I do feel that students need to have competition and choice in what they're doing and it's not a right move for students to have somebody tell them what they have to do and only give them one option and so i think in the global picture students are going to suffer if we don't keep the choice in the community."

Right now, only one fourth of colleges allow students to do borrow directly from the government.

This bill would make all colleges offer that option.

But Sallie Mae says that could put Wilkes-Barre call center jobs in jeopardy.

These petitions intend to send that message from the more than one thousand workers here.

Sallie Mae's 6 call center sites across the country are doing similar petition drives.

The petitions will be given to elected leaders in Washington and Sallie Mae say all total, 200 thousand signatures will on all the petitions when finished.