New round of USPS cutbacks sparks more protests

U.S. Postal Service workers plan protests in Bend and other cities around the country Friday, opposing the planned closure of more than 80 processing centers, including Bend’s, they claim will further slow mail delivery and damage the agency

But the USPS said the changes are needed as first-mail volume continues to drop and package delivery grows – both a result of the Internet.

The Friday afternoon protest at the Bend Post Office by the American Postal Workers Union members is part of a “national day of action” aimed at the latest round of what mail workers call “devastating cuts” planned by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and the USPS Board of Governors, including the scheduled April closure of the Bend facility.

All Central Oregon mail has been sent to Portland since an earlier round of cuts to processing centers in recent years. But mail for the Bend 977—ZIP codes still returns to Bend for sorting before being delivered. Now, that mail sorting is planned to shift to Portland as well, part of efficiency moves the agency says reflect today’s changing reality.

“We have to make adjustments to the changing mail habits of the American people,” said Postal Service spokesman Peter Hass.

But even before that, on Jan. 5, the union has noted the Postal Service plans to lower service standards to, they said, “virtually eliminate overnight delivery,” including first-class mail within one’s own city.

Hass said that’s not true – that the change doesn’t mean no mail will be delivered overnight. However, he said, the estimated average first-class mail delivery will rise slightly, from the current 2.14 days to 2.25 days.

Nationally, according to the USPS, under Phase 2 of the “network rationalization,” about 20 percent of first-class mail would be delivered overnight, more than a third in two days and about 44 percent in three days.

The steep decline in mail volume – over 30 percent over the last decade, even higher in first-class mail – coupled with the steady rise in delivery of packages ordered online is why the USPS still seeks approval to stop Saturday mail deliveries, while at the same time it is starting, in larger cities, to offer Sunday package deliveries.

“We’re looking at ways to increase revenue,” like anyone in the shipping business, Hass said, adding that the Postal Service “did very well” during last year’s holiday period. “We’d like to increase our market share.”

That comes after the Postal Service says has lost a whopping $26 billion over the last three years – and it would have been worse, if not for moves begun in 2012 to consolidate over 140 processing facilities. Moving to five-day delivery would save the agency $3 billion a year, they say, while the savings now being put into place will trim costs by $750 million a year, or $3.5 billion over five years.

And while union officials say the agency’s “flawed strategy” has eliminated jobs, Hass said the reductions in workforce have been made so far without layoffs, through attrition, offering alternative jobs and a few getting early retirement packages. The new moves affect about 15,000 workers, and the USPS hopes to continue to make its moves without layoffs.

The workers say the red ink comes from “political interference,” because the agency – not funded by tax dollars – actually has made more than $1 billion profit this year. It pointed, as it has in the past, at a move by Congress in 2006 requiring the USPS to pre-fund future retiree health benefits 75 years in advance, something not required of any other public or private entity – at a cost of $5.6 billion a year.

The union workers want the USPS officials to honor a request by 51 senators and 160 House members for a one-year moratorium on service reductions and closures “to allow Congress time to enact postal legislation that would improve, not degrade, postal service.”

To learn more about the workers’ points on the impending cuts, visit http://www.apwu.org/issues/stop-delaying-americas-mail

For more from the U.S. Postal Service on what it’s doing and why, visit http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/our-future-network/welcome.htm