{"id":10824,"date":"2015-05-04T15:56:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T20:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=10824"},"modified":"2015-05-04T15:56:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T20:56:55","slug":"apwu-northwest-lawmakers-speak-out-against-consolidations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2015\/05\/04\/apwu-northwest-lawmakers-speak-out-against-consolidations\/","title":{"rendered":"APWU: Northwest Lawmakers Speak Out Against Consolidations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"news-date-inline\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">APWU &#8211; 05\/04\/2015<\/span><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>&#8211;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Oregon\u2019s congressional delegation sent a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apwu.org\/sites\/apwu\/files\/resource-files\/1504%20Merkley%20-%20PMG%20Delegation%20Meeting%20Request.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>to Postmaster General Megan Brennan, requesting a meeting, \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d to discuss consolidation plans and the future of mail delivery standards. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/1aa-APWU-small.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-7249\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/1aa-APWU-small.gif\" alt=\"1aa-APWU-small\" width=\"295\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mail processing facilities in Bend and Pendleton are slated to close by the end of April, and the Eugene facility is scheduled to close by the end of July \u2013 leaving just two mail processing facilities in the entire state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to better understand how USPS intends to meet the timely needs of our constituents, if mail processing facility consolidations continue and service standard times are extended,\u201d said the April 20 letter. The legislators also noted that moving forward with consolidations would hurt local businesses and eliminate middle class jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Jeff Merkley (D), Sen. Ron Wyden (D), Rep. Peter DeFazio (D), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D), Rep. Greg Walden (R), Rep. Kurt Schrader (D) and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D) signed the letter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seattle Seeks Postal Reform Legislation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Seattle\u2019s City Council and its mayor are sounding the call for postal reform legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s leading lawmakers sent letters to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apwu.org\/sites\/apwu\/files\/resource-files\/USPSLetterFinalMurray.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apwu.org\/sites\/apwu\/files\/resource-files\/USPSLetterFinalCantwell.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>this month, requesting legislation that would:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stabilize Postal Service finances by reforming or eliminating the unique requirement of pre-funding future retiree health benefits;<\/li>\n<li>Secure the continuation of six-day mail delivery;<\/li>\n<li>Retain door-to-door service for over 30 million households and businesses, and<\/li>\n<li class=\"last\">Restore service standards that would provide for next-day delivery of local, first-class mail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The April 6 letters \u2013 signed by all nine council members and Mayor Edward Murray \u2013 outline why postal services are so important to the nation, especially Seattleites.\u00a0 They note that Seattle residents vote almost entirely by mail and many \u2013 especially senior citizens \u2013 rely on the Postal Service for prompt delivery of prescription medication.<\/p>\n<p>The Postal Service also provides approximately 4,000 living-wage jobs in the area, \u201ccomprising an important part of our local economy in the Puget Sound Region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last\">\u201cIf no legislative action is taken to restore service standards, mail sorting operations in Redmond, Tacoma and Wenatchee will be closed this year, impacting over 300 jobs and making it more difficult to return to previous delivery schedules,\u201d the letters said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>APWU &#8211; 05\/04\/2015\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0Oregon\u2019s congressional delegation sent a\u00a0letter\u00a0to Postmaster General Megan Brennan, requesting a meeting, \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d to discuss consolidation plans and the future of mail delivery standards. \u00a0 Mail processing facilities in Bend and Pendleton are slated to close by the end of April, and the Eugene facility is scheduled to close by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10825,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824\/revisions\/10825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}