Post Office Workers Protest Closing of Processing Plant
According to local union postal workers, the closure of the plant will delay local mail delivery and will force 20 local workers to move to Mobile to keep their jobs. Friday, the workers held an informational picket outside the Larkin Smith Post Office on Highway 49. They say the closing of the Gulfport plant could be avoided if Congress would lift the $5 billion a year mandate for funding retirement benefits.
oey Breeland, President of the Mail Handlers Union Local 325, says, “Well, we’d like Congress to take that pressure off the postal service and let us keep operating as normal. If it wasn’t for that, we’d be operating at a surplus.”
Pete Kreger, a postal worker, says, “Well, you know, life ain’t fair, but the post office is making an operational profit. They’re not broke like they say they are, so it’s all been, you know, a fabrication really.”
Friday, a spokeswoman for the U.S.P.S. released a statement to News 25. In it, she says changing service standards and right-sizing the postal service’s processing and retail infrastructure are necessary aspects of a larger comprehensive plan designed to reduce overall operating costs by $20 billion by 2017.
Read the full statement from the U.S.P.S. below:
With major volume decreases in First-Class Mail, the Postal Service has significant excess capacity in its network and cannot sit idly by and do nothing. The Postal Service firmly believes that the operational changes being implemented are necessary. In the process, the Postal Service has sought to minimize impact to customers and employees.
Making these changes will enhance the viability of the organization and its ability to continue providing service in the future.
Key Facts
•The first phase of network rationalization was highly successful. There were no major service disruptions and the effort generated annual cost savings of approximately $0.9B billion. The Postal Service expects to capture $2.1B in total annualized savings from Phase 1 and Phase 2 when full-up.
•Single-piece First-Class Mail volume, the product most affected by Phase II, has declined 53 percent in the past ten years. This mail consists largely of personal correspondence, bill payments, greeting cards, etc. When sent locally, it is currently delivered within one day. Beginning in January 2015, this mail will be delivered in two days.
•For 49-cents, single-piece First Class Mail will be delivered anywhere in the contiguous United States within three days.
•Package Services and Priority Mail will not be affected and will be delivered based on current service standards. This includes most medications and small business shipping.
•Network rationalization has resulted in no bargaining unit layoffs. There will be a methodical transition for employees in the affected mail processing facilities.
•Changing service standards and right-sizing the Postal Service’s processing and retail infrastructure are necessary aspects of a larger comprehensive plan designed to reduce overall operating costs by $20 billion by 2017, return the Postal Service to financial stability and help ensure the future of the nation’s mail system.
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