Stand Up and Fight Back to Save Our Service Standards

Now is the time to become union activists and get involved in your community! Contact your elected officials, ask organizations to take actions to save the prompt delivery of our First-Class Mail service, to stop the Delivering for America (DFA) planned consolidations of processing and distribution centers (P&DCs), and to stop the “network modernization” plans that halt mail service, causing mail and packages to sit overnight in post offices with less security and slowing postal services for a majority of communities across this country.

We have power, but we must do the work to reach out to our community and political allies, educating them about just how far the Postal Service is going down the rabbit hole, and how we can work together to block these plans.

The Postal Service notified the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on Nov. 22, 2024, that they would continue processing outgoing local operations in 16 of the 58 planned consolidation locations.

These locations are Bismarck, ND PDC, Burlington, VT PDC, Charleston. WV PDC, Chattanooga, TN PDC, Eastern ME PDC, El Paso, TX PDC, Fayetteville, AR PDC, Fayetteville, NC PDC, Ft Myers, FL PDC, Greenville, SC PDC, Gulfport, MS PDC, Knoxville, TN PDC, McAllen, TX PDC, Reno, NV PDC, Tulsa, OK PDC, Waterloo, IA PDC.

The Postal Service reversed course on these locations due to the pushbacks and pressure placed on the Postmaster General (PMG). One example is the Buffalo Local that had built their relationship with NY Senator Schumer for years, and through reaching out to him, their plant consolidation was stopped immediately. Establishing a relationship with your elected officials can make the difference in our union's battles.

There are 42 other P&DCs that are on the hit list for their planned consolidation to local processing centers (LPCs) in 2024. Consolidation means the P&DC will have no ability to cancel and postmark their own sectional center facility (SCF) area mail or provide prompt services. Even worse is that there are facilities on that list that the Postal Service reneged on pausing, and within a brief period, took out P&DC mail-processing equipment, and refused to bring it back, hiding it from the public.

Let us put the pressure back on the PMG and the PRC to reverse these actions, keeping the 2012 network that had worked for decades. Tell them to stop the path to privatization by selling our service to the highest private-sector bidder, putting the public Postal Service into the hands of billionaires to make more profits, and without any oversight to protect workers and the services that we all depend on.

We need everyone to step up and fight this. For a list of locations where consolidations need to be stopped or reversed, visit apwu.org/vice-president. Everyone needs to get on board to stop the network modernization plan that causes mail service to sit overnight and delays services that we depend on. 

In some areas, mail will sit overnight instead of providing prompt services, while others will continue to process mail with no delay.

We need the PRC to advise the Postal Service to halt all plans for consolidations and transportation optimizations. They should take a stand to protect our service by reverting to the 2012 service standards of 195 P&DCs processing mail and overnight service in most cities. The DFA plan downgrades services, adversely affects businesses and organizations, short staffs’ workers, and fails to provide prompt, timely service.

Do you need ideas about how you can get involved? Contact me at dszeredy@apwu.org. ■