What Are They Trying to Hide?

The Postal Service’s second quarter performance scores are in – but you wouldn’t know it from looking at their website.

Instead of posting a press release bragging about on-time delivery scores – as management typically does – the results are tucked away at the bottom of the Postal Regulatory Commission’s daily filings page and buried on an obscure page on the USPS website.

So what exactly is the Postal Service trying to hide?

The results are bad – very bad.

The APWU has not yet had the chance to fully analyze the official, published reports, but we know from an analysis of preliminary results that on-time delivery of first-class mail dropped dramatically in early 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.

According to an April 27 Washington Post article titled, “It’s not just you: Letters really are taking longer to get delivered:”

• A decision by the Postal Service this past January to abandon overnight mail delivery is causing severe delays in mail delivery.
• “Preliminary internal data shows that the Postal Service did not meet even its lower targets for first-class mail during the first seven weeks of 2015, with letters that are supposed to take three days … arriving on time just 54 percent to 63 percent of the time.”

Despite the terrible performance scores, postal management is pushing ahead with plans to close and consolidate mail processing centers, which will further devastate mail delivery throughout the country.

The APWU is standing up and fighting back! During contract negotiations, the APWU has made the unprecedented move of bringing consumer issues to the bargaining table, insisting that quality service is crucial to maintaining a strong public Postal Service.

In addition to proposals that would protect good, stable jobs, postal workers are demanding extended hours at post offices, shorter wait time in line for customers, an end to the closure of mail sorting centers, restoration of prompt mail delivery, and the addition of new services, including postal banking.

“We need everyone to contact their members of Congress and ask them to stop further consolidations and closures and to restore high service standards,” said APWU Executive Vice President Debby Szeredy.