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Network Realignment

USPS Tries to Keep It Secret – But the APWU Takes It Public

(This article first appeared in the September/October 2006 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

The Postal Service was forced to acknowledge in testimony to the Postal Rate Commission (PRC) in July that nearly a year ago it had compiled a list of 139 facilities that were being considered “potential candidates” for consolidation. The USPS provided the list to the PRC on July 25.

David Williams, who coordinates the Area Mail Processing program at USPS headquarters, revealed the existence of the list during cross-examination on July 19. He testified that the list of facilities was part of the Evolutionary Network Development (END) initiative, and was generated in September 2005. It identified facilities that postal headquarters wanted regional managers to consider for possible inclusion in the program, he said.

Under the Postal Reorganization Act, the Postal Service must obtain an opinion from the PRC about network realignment plans that would have a “substantially nationwide” affect on mail service. The USPS notified the PRC of plans to realign the postal network on Feb. 14, 2006.

But until July 25, 2006 , the Postal Service had failed to provide a comprehensive list of sites under consideration for consolidation. The USPS announced the consolidation of some operations at 10 facilities on Oct. 19 and Nov. 1, 2005; since then, the USPS has notified the APWU of approximately 40 additional AMP “feasibility studies.” Most of those are included among the 139 facilities.

“This list is further evidence of the Postal Service’s stubborn refusal to share its plans for the nation’s mail network with the American people,” said APWU President William Burrus. Under the terms of an extension of the National Agreement, for example, the USPS was required to supply the APWU with its plan to consolidate facilities in December 2002.

“The union has repeatedly asked for an overview of the plans,” Burrus said. “But the Postal Service continues to do everything possible to hide its intentions, to keep workers in the dark, and to exclude citizens and small businesses from providing input about how the changes would affect them.”

APWU Plans Very Public

The APWU has taken its grassroots campaign against USPS “network realignment” to a new level by airing radio and television ads that warn of week-long delays in mail delivery.

The last frame of the APWU television commercial.

Broadcast advertising began July 26, with radio and television commercials running in Beaumont (TX), Bloomington (IN), Cumberland (MD), St. Petersburg (FL), and Yakima (WA), cities where APWU activists have already taken steps to inform citizens about the negative effect of USPS network consolidation plans.

As this edition of The American Postal Worker goes to press, additional sites for the radio/TV campaign are being selected.

“We are asking affected locals to build on their existing efforts by coordinating activities to coincide with the advertising campaign,” Burrus said. Other locals also are planning to conduct press conferences, hold leafletting events, submit Op-Ed articles and letters to their local newspapers, and to discuss the issue on local talk-radio and news shows.

“The radio and TV ads are only the opening salvo in what promises to be a long campaign,” Burrus said. “The USPS plan was created without any input from the American people, whose mail service will deteriorate. The plan is the result of an effort by big mailers to reduce their own postage costs at the expense of all others.”

While the ads are aimed at the general public, the campaign is also designed to reach decision-makers and “opinion shapers,” such as elected officials, local business leaders, and journalists, as well as USPS management.

Reversal in Rockford

In a major win for the APWU and the community, the Postal Service in late July terminated its plan to move mailsorting operations and as many as 100 jobs out of the Rockford (IL) main post office.

“This is a colossal victory for the people of northern Illinois and the hard-working Rockford postal employees whose jobs were threatened by this consolidation plan,” said U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo (R).

Gregg Voiles, president of APWU’s Rockford Area Local, called it “a day of elation.” The threatened facility, Rockford ’s main post office, has about 300 APWU-represented workers among its 750 postal employees.

“The Rockford local was a model of vigilance,” Burrus said. “Union members kept up a steady drumbeat of letter-writing and phone calls, and made sure that elected officials and civic leaders were part of the effort to keep the Postal Service from implementing its ill-advised plan.”

Postal officials in Washington changed course after months of lobbying by the APWU, Manzullo, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D) and Barack Obama (D), state Sen. Dave Syverson (R), and Rockford-area civic leaders.

In a statement from Washington , Durbin praised the decisions and also saluted the efforts of civic and business leaders. “It shows how effective a community can be,” the senator said,“when they come together to resolve local issues.”

Michigan , McAllen (TX) Machinations

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) on July 10 added himself to the growing list of members of Congress who are demanding that the Postal Service present a fuller accounting of its plans to consolidate operations at facilities nationwide. After reviewing an Area Mail Processing study, postal officials proposed closing the mail-sorting operations of the Gaylord, MI, main Post Office. Stupak and staff met with postal officials in Washington in early July. “I expressed a number of concerns,” the congressman said, “including the importance of continued uniformity of postal service throughout northern Michigan .”

The Postal Service plan is to consolidate Gaylord’s sorting operations to the Traverse City Processing and Distribution Center , some 60 miles away. Approximately 80 fulltime employees would be relocated as a result.

John Marcotte, president of APWU’s Gaylord Local, attended the meeting with Stupak and said that Postal Service data about expected savings were misleading. Marcotte told the Gaylord Herald Times that one way savings were to be realized was through the purchase of a mail-sorting machine for the gaining facility. “We’ve been asking for one for five years,” he said. “Gaylord can’t get one, but if they get our mail, they’re getting the new machine. It’s cheaper to do mail here.”

In the southern tip of Texas, the citizens of McAllen think of their city as the heart of the Rio Grande Valley. But an AMP study is likely to recommend that the mail for this city would be more efficiently sorted 160 miles away, in Corpus Christi .

At a public meeting held at the Chamber of Commerce in June, many of these same citizens challenged Postal Service representatives to justify re-directing mail away from the McAllen area’s much larger population and its higher growth rate in comparison to the Corpus Christi area. They also noted that the Gulf Coast city has a much higher hurricane vulnerability.

Several pointed to a Postal Service’s existing practice of sending the Valley’s outgoing weekend mail to Corpus Christi, which has meant frequent delays in delivery.

As quoted in the McAllen Monitor, Keith Patridge, president of the McAllen Economic Development Corp., said that a decision about consolidation of mailing services should not be taken lightly by anyone in the business community or beyond. “This is something that involves the livelihood of a lot of people,” he said.

At the meeting, however, Postal Service officials offered only the company line that there will be opportunity for public input once the feasibility study is complete. They also offered the standard USPS empty promise of no timeline.

Cumberland ’s Communications Plan

Cumberland (MD) Area Local President Phil Jones, Secretary-Treasurer Jim Lawhorn, and scores of fellow APWU activists have made sure that the Postal Service’s proposed consolidation of operations at the Cumberland Processing and Distribution Center is kept in the public eye.

With Sen. Paul Sarbanes in Cumberland, Phil Jones, left, and Jim Lawhorn.

They’ve been spreading the word for months about the proposal to move Cumberland ’s mail to Frederick, about 90 miles away. As part of the campaign, the local mailed out letters to more than 300 area businesses, which generated a large amount of mail to Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D), who then met with USPS officials to underscore his and the public’s concerns about the possible consolidation.

On July 22, at the Allegany County Fair, members of the APWU local passed along information from the AFL-CIO booth and paraded around in groups wearing T-shirts with the traditional “No” circle/slash icon over the word “Consolidation.” Similar exhibitions were made throughout the summer at popular “Friday After Five” gatherings at an area mall.

The Postal Service response to date has been mainly to say that the study is not complete, so there are no plans to relocate services. On the other hand, there has been no public meeting scheduled either.

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