We need Your Help! (Does Your Postal Facility Look Like This?)

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 that helped manufacture a financial crisis at USPS was passed by Congress with only a voice vote. This was a plan that many believed would be the begin- ning of privatizing the Postal Service, not enhancing it. Looking at the plan, it utilized more contract drivers, caused massive downsizing of mail processing facilities, forced over a $5 billion annual payment to the Treasury each year and helped our competitors.

Between 2006 and 2012 the USPS downsized over 284 facilities by taking out their mail processing equip- ment. In 2012, management proposed an additional 82 facilities to consolidate, calling it Phase 2. Phase 2 could not be done without adversely affecting the transportation network and ending overnight delivery of first-class mail within a geographical area from the facility. Over 69 of the plants had their canceling ma- chines (AFCS) taken out, forcing the raw mail arriving to their facility to be transported by truck to another understaffed facility with minimal space that on aver- age is between 2-4 hours away. This caused further delays of that mail, and required the USPS to reduce the service standards in 2015.

PMG DeJoy then reduced the service standards again in 2020, wreaking havoc on our ability as workers to provide the great service we had provided before the 2012 changes. His plan also utilizes Surface Transfer Centers (mostly contract- ed out) to take the place of our Mail Processing Facili- ties. The consolidations caused much of the bloated transportation costs by utilizing more contractors to deliver our mail, another step to privatizing.

We need Postal facilities fully restored with mail processing equipment, properly postal staffed, and we need our 2012 service standards back (94%-97% performance scores). The answer is easy, but it takes all of us together to force the USPS to de-centralize our postal facilities and go back to the 2012 Service Standards. We can only provide better service when there are more postal first-class let- ter and package mail sorting facilities and better staffing that utilizes postal workers in a non-hostile work envi- ronment, who can provide prompt, secure, sanctity of our mail service and faster service that safeguards our mail ballots, our democracy for 2022 and beyond.