Printer-Friendly Page
 |
AFL-CIO News |
 |
Listen to Labor News |
3 Consolidations Stopped; 1 Reversed
(This article first appared in the September/October 2007 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
The APWU has been notified that three proposed consolidations that would have resulted in mail-processing shifts in Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Texas will not occur. And thanks to the efforts of the Marysville (CA) Local, a nearly two-year-old consolidation is being reversed. In an Oct. 19, 2005, letter to the APWU, the Postal Service announced consolidation plans at nine facilities nationwide, including a shifting of some mail-processing operations from the Marysville P&DF to the Sacramento P&DC, approximately 40 miles away.
“They actually took out the AFCSs in January 2006,” said Marysville APWU President Rick Page, “and followed that up with the elimination of all outgoing operations.” Page said that he and Shawn Dalton, president of the local mail-handlers union, kept their eye on things. “We knew that the AMP [Area Mail Processing] plan wasn’t achieving any savings and we kept close track of all costs, especially transportation. We’re a small plant and it required a real team effort to gather the data necessary to reach our goal of the return of processing.”
“We were finally able to meet — in May this year — with the Postal Service’s Pacific Area vice president, thanks to the efforts of Regional Coordinator Omar Gonzalez,” Page said. The records they shared at that meeting were reviewed in Washington and the AMP was reversed.
“This is the first reversal of an AMP and one AFCS is already back in place,” he said. “We lost about a dozen clerks to attrition while the AMP was in place.” Page added that the locals were working on a staffing package that could result in 25-to-30 more clerks and nine more mailhandlers.
Meanwhile…
The announcements about the three AMP study cancellations were similar to others received by the APWU since April 2006: “After review, it has been determined that there are currently no significant opportunities to improve efficiency and/or service through consolidation of certain mail processing operations at the Jackson, TN Post Office into the Memphis, TN Processing and Distribution Center,” the Postal Service wrote on July 27. “Therefore, no significant changes will be made at this time.”
Thirty workers faced transfer or a reduction in hours under the Area Mail Processing study proposal, which was announced in December 2005, and which proposed sending operations about 90 miles away.
In a press release, U.S. Rep. John Tanner (D), whose district includes the areas that would have been affected, praised the USPS decision. Tanner had written to Postmaster General John Potter in 2006, pointing out that the Jackson workforce was known for reliability and speed, and wondering what the benefit would be of moving the system an hour-and-a-half west.
On July 18, the Postal Service announced the termination of the study to send mail 50 miles across Wisconsin from Oshkosh to Green Bay. A similar announcement regarding the Waco P&DF was received on July 24.
The studies of the potential transfer of some Oshkosh operations into the Green Bay P&DF, and some operations from Waco 80 or 90 miles in two different directions across Texas, had been announced in December 2005 (Oshkosh) and January 2006 (Waco).
The APWU’s Waco Local had waged a vigorous campaign to stop the consolidation. Union members engaged in picketing, conducted interviews with the media, and garnered support from elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards.
The Latest…
Nationwide, eight studies are ongoing, while 37 consolidation-feasibility surveys have been terminated, placed on hold, or reversed since the first of 55 consolidations and AMP studies were announced on Oct. 19, 2005.
Although required by various laws, the USPS has rarely sought input from regulatory boards or the mailing public about the “Evolutionary Network Design” (END) program. Feeling that this was a violation of the Postal Reorganization Act, the APWU in April 2006 filed a lawsuit over the Postal Service failure to seek an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) “within a reasonable time prior to the effective date” of a proposal that would change the nature of postal services on a “nationwide or substantially nationwide basis.”
In a recent ruling, a U.S. District Court concluded that the complaint was rendered “moot” by a subsequent advisory opinion issued by the PRC. The December 2006 opinion found that the goals of the END program were “consistent with the policies and criteria of the Postal Reorganization Act,” but concluded that the “evidentiary record does not provide assurance that the proposed realignment program, as currently envisaged, will meet its goals.”
The PRC advised the Postal Service “to obtain and integrate reliable information in [certain] areas before proceeding with full implementation of the contemplated program.”
