{"id":3640,"date":"2012-02-14T16:20:12","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T21:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=3640"},"modified":"2012-02-14T16:20:12","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T21:20:12","slug":"house-members-seek-moratorium-on-usps-plans-to-close-post-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2012\/02\/14\/house-members-seek-moratorium-on-usps-plans-to-close-post-offices\/","title":{"rendered":"House Members Seek Moratorium On USPS Plans to Close Post Offices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More than 100 members of the House of Representatives have signed a letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe<\/a> asking him to place a moratorium on plans to consolidate thousands of post offices \u201cuntil the USPS resolves the numerous problems\u201d identified by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) in a Dec. 23, 2011, advisory opinion. The Feb. 13 letter was initiated by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY).<\/p>\n

The PRC report<\/a> blasted the USPS \u201cRetail Access Optimization Initiative,\u201d concluding that the Postal Service lacks sufficient data to predict cost savings from proposed closures; engages in a pattern of inaccurate and overly optimistic estimation of savings; fails to adequately consider whether alternate post offices are located near those targeted for closure, and displays a careless disregard for community concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary commission finding,\u201d according to the report, \u201cis that notwithstanding its name, the Retail Access Optimization Initiative is not designed to optimize the retail network.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the letter to Postmaster General, 111 members of the House wrote, \u201cWe strongly urge you to rectify these issues within the RAOI before proceeding with any discontinuance studies. The closure of Post Offices, stations, and branches will undoubtedly affect communities and lead to the loss of middle-class jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain dedicated to protecting our nation\u2019s postal service and ensuring that all communities are adequately served by the USPS,\u201d the congressmen concluded.<\/p>\n

APWU Applauds Effort<\/p>\n

APWU President Cliff Guffey praised the effort to secure a moratorium. \u201cThe APWU looks forward to working with members of Congress to strengthen the Postal Service so that is can continue to serve the American people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The PRC found \u201cserious flaws in the methodology used by the USPS in developing its consolidation plan for post offices and other retail facilities,\u201d Guffey noted. \u201cWe believe these criticisms also apply to USPS plans to close more than half of the nation\u2019s mail processing centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the Postal Service\u2019s inability to substantiate projected savings, the agency is forging ahead with plans to close 3,600 post offices and shut 252 mail processing centers,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the same time, the USPS is proposing to degrade service standards \u2013 to eliminate overnight delivery for first-class mail and periodicals, change next-day delivery to two days, and extend two-day delivery to three days<\/p>\n

\u201cThese actions would severely disrupt mail service, eliminate jobs, hurt local economies, and lead to the demise of the USPS,\u201d Guffey said.<\/p>\n

The APWU is urging union members to contact their senators and representatives to express their views on three bills that would have an extremely detrimental effect on postal employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 100 members of the House of Representatives have signed a letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe asking him to place a moratorium on plans to consolidate thousands of post offices \u201cuntil the USPS resolves the numerous problems\u201d identified by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) in a Dec. 23, 2011, advisory opinion. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3640","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=3640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3644,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3640\/revisions\/3644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}