Connecticut Senators, APWU Denounce Consolidations

Connecticut Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy condemned USPS plans to consolidate two Processing and Distribution Centers in the state at a press conference on Aug. 27 and urged Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to agree to a one-year moratorium on 82 plant consolidations that are scheduled to begin in January.

The senators were joined at the press conference by about 50 APWU members who chanted, “The U.S. Mail is Not for Sale.”

Closing the plants would send the USPS into a “downward spiral” Sen. Blumenthal said, “devastating service by delaying delivery.”

“There is a small group of ideological conservatives who want to see the Postal Service privatized,” Sen. Murphy said. “They want to see it sold off to their cronies.”

Bob Johnson, president of the Greater Connecticut Area Local, said postal workers are concerned that delaying mail delivery will drive away customers. “What company in the world says, ‘Let’s do less?’” he asked. It would be like McDonald’s saying that your burger will now take an hour instead of a few minutes, he added. “It’s just going to push people more and more away from using first class mail.”

Northeast Region Coordinator John Dirzius said, “We are dealing with a Postmaster General who believes that the best way to save a company is to destroy it from within.

“No company can survive by cutting and cutting,” he said.

In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown, wrote a guest column in the Xenia Gazette, condemning plant closures. “The hard-working employees of USPS provide an essential service and deserve to keep their jobs. Congress must act to keep these mail processing facilities open and ensure the USPS can afford to operate in the future.”

Colorado’s two senators warned the Postal Service that closing mail processing centers could impact elections, the Pueblo Chieftain reported. In a letter to the Postal Service, Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall wrote, “In states like ours, where many residents rely on vote-by-mail for their federal, state and local elections, consolidation of postal facilities could pose a serious threat to citizens’ access to the democratic process.”