Wyden’s brings ‘special delivery’ to Bend post office, presses postmaster general to drop plan that’s delaying mail
(Update: Adding video, comments from Senator Wyden, APWU, Vocal Seniority)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., joined union members and others outside the main Bend post office Wednesday to decry the “mail madness” that he said has resulted from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's "consolidation debacle" and the headaches its caused for mail delivery around the state.
Wyden appeared with Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, American Postal Workers Union members and The Vocal Seniority to continue to press for reversal of recent actions they say have caused serious delivery issues.
"What we're doing today is sending him a special delivery message from Oregon that it's time to get rid of this idiotic approach," Wyden said, pressing for a reversal of recent actions by DeJoy.
"The postmaster general has a 10-year plan. And yet all over Oregon, seniors, veterans, small businesses are saying they are getting clobbered right now," he said.
Roger Sabbadini with the group The Vocal Seniority says he is feeling the effects.
"Seniors like myself rely on medications. We rely on Social Security checks. We rely on disability checks. And, these delays, you know, in some cases could be life-threatening."
The $40 billion, 10-year plan was implemented after the postal service lost $100 billion in 2020. It includes consolidating mail processing to fewer regional offices. For Central Oregon, mail first goes to Portland for processing.
Meanwhile, a NewsChannel 21 viewer told us this week they saw a postal worker delivering mail in a rural area of Bend as late as 10 p.m.
At Wednesday's news conference, American Postal Workers Union member Daniel Cortez called the current plan a disaster.
"We're losing jobs, we're not hiring," he told reporters. "And that reduction in staffing, coupled with the built-in manufactured delays at the mail on either end, is what's creating the crisis."
"The 10-year plan is, at its core, hastening the demise of the postal service. And it has to stop," he added.
The Bend event came a day after Wyden and fellow Senator Jeff Merkley rallied with U.S. Postal Service workers in both Portland and Springfield, at the latter event expressing concern that sending mail to Portland, rather than local processing, was causing delivery delays in the area.
Last week, the senators demanded that Postmaster General DeJoy immediately reverse his decision to relocate outgoing operations at the regional postal distribution center in Medford.
Asked about the senators' and others' claims, Postal Service regional Strategic Communications Specialist Kim Frum provided this statement:
"Through our Delivering for America investments, we have built capacity into our processing, logistics, and delivery infrastructure to meet customers' evolving mail and package needs. We are executing on strategies to pull together the people, technology, transportation, equipment, and facilities into a well-integrated and streamlined mail and package network.
"We have worked hard in past three years to stabilize our workforce. We have converted more than 191,000 pre-career employees to career status since January 2021.
"In addition, according to delivery data from the start of the fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2023) through Sept. 13, 97% of First-Class Mail within the 977 (Bend) ZIP Code area was delivered within the service standard.
"It takes less than two days to process and deliver mail sent within the 977 (Bend) ZIP Code. Additionally, delivery time has also been less than two days for the last two years.
"Statewide, the processing and delivery time has stayed at less than two days since FY2022," Frum concluded.
