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Consumers, Postal Workers
Express Concerns About 'Consolidation'
APWU Web News Article #01-06, Jan. 3, 2006
Postal Service announcements of plans to consolidate “some operations” at mail processing facilities around the country have generated interest in the press, as well as among elected officials and consumers. The reviews are almost universally unfavorable.
The deterioration of customer service, the demise of historical postmarks, and the dislocation of citizens important to local economies are issues that seem to resonate with the media, legislators, and the public.
Loss of Identity
In Freeport, IL, consolidation is presenting all the usual prospects: worse consumer service, job anxieties for area residents, and the loss of a postmark. The local newspaper called the inclusion of a “Palatine” postmark where once there was a “Freeport” or “Rockford” postmark, an emotional issue that more plainly emphasizes the loss of jobs and autonomy over “local” post office operations.
In nearby Iowa, meanwhile, “a 150-year tradition of having our own identity through the post office would be erased,” said Jim Price, president of APWU’s Sioux City Local. The Area Mail Processing study concerns moving mail processing across the Missouri River into Sioux Falls, SD.
From a practical standpoint, eliminating Sioux City’s postmark “would effectively cut western Iowa off from next-day delivery to the rest of Iowa,” Price told the Sioux City Journal. “There is no next-day delivery from Sioux Falls to Des Moines.”
A similar situation exists in La Crosse, WI, where public officials are considering going to battle over the plans to shift the city’s mail processing to Rochester, MN.
In late December, the La Crosse Common Council’s Legislative Committee passed a resolution that demands that mail sorting be kept at the “local” post office. The council members’ concerns include not only that postal identity will be lost, it will be lost to a neighboring state.
John Shea, president of APWU’s La Crosse Area Local, pointed out the practical impact of the proposed move in a story in the La Crosse Tribune. Shea said that the Postal Service recently invested in new equipment in La Crosse, and that the shift would slow down third-class mail operations and overload workers in other facilities that already are short-staffed.
The Postmark Market
In Olympia, WA, the postmark issue has sparked controversy as well. The USPS plan is to have a shared “Tacoma/Olympia” designation. Tacoma is 30 miles from Washington’s capital city and several problems are expected.
State residents vote by mail and all ballots must be postmarked by Election Day – if the postmark is not applied that day, the ballots are invalidated. Property tax payments and IRS filings that are not postmarked on the day mailed could result in financial penalties. In addition, many business, legal, and state transactions involving the requirement of a postmark will also be in jeopardy.
“In addition to the historical importance of a state capital having its own postmark,” said Clint Burelson, president of the Olympia APWU Local said in an interview with The Olympian. “Processing the mail in Olympia provides better service to the entire state. The later cutoff times mean that state agencies have time to get the mail to citizens all over the state.”
Wherever, It Hurts
Complaints about slower service and the loss of postal identity have been echoed in Jackson, TN, where APWU President Betty Brawley told the Jackson Sun that the transfer of mail processing to Memphis is imminent: “The word came from a manager who said things that should not have been said — and both sides were upset about that.”
In a story published shortly before the Christmas rush, the APWU leader said that consumers are likely to be upset, too. “Currently mail dropped off in Jackson on weekends is processed thru Memphis, and it takes at least one extra day to be delivered. If this were done on a daily basis,” she added, “it might take even more time, especially during peak periods, like now.”
In Greensburg, PA, the mayor and the city council are especially concerned about the loss of nearly 100 jobs and were quick to support Jim Swank, president of APWU’s Greensburg/Foothills Area Local, when he asked them to look into the plan that none of the elected officials had prior knowledge about, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
In Owensboro, KY, Union members told the Messenger-Inquirer newspaper that they worried that the only jobs still around after consolidation of some operations would be part-time positions. The newspaper pointed out that the “local economy” would lose more than $1.3 million a year if the proposal to transfer mail processing went forward.
In Utica, NY, Dan Mellito, an APWU steward, quoted in a report in the Utica Observer-Dispatch, wondered about the Postal Service’s commitment to timeliness. A Utica resident mailing a letter to another address in the city can expect it to arrive there the next day, Mellito said, adding that he didn’t know how that could occur if such mail first were re-routed to Syracuse, as proposed in the AMP study.
Workers in West Eatontown, NJ, worry not just about the costs associated with their expected longer commutes when processing is shifted to either Edison or Hamilton, but about the extra step in customer service. “It doesn’t make any sense,” said Joseph Shevlin, president of APWU’s Red Bank Local. “It’s 40 to 50 extra miles. First-class mail will absolutely be delayed in the county...all mail will be delayed.”
As to the job-relocation prospects, Shevlin sees an extra step there, too: “Workers will be commuting 80 miles instead of 5 or 6,” he said in an article in the Asbury Park Press. The Postal Service says it’s making these moves to save money, Shevlin said. “How will that help [curb] fuel consumption?”
“The Postal Service has stated that it is reluctant to publicly disclose information on its realignment strategy,” a Government Accountability Office report noted early in 2004, “because it believes that it will meet with resistance from employees, communities, and government representatives if it tells them what it is planning on doing too far in advance.” Judging from the reaction from workers, consumers, and public officials, the concerns of postal managers were well-founded.
