{"id":3751,"date":"2012-02-23T23:13:06","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T04:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=3751"},"modified":"2012-02-23T23:14:28","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T04:14:28","slug":"apwu-members-must-continue-the-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2012\/02\/23\/apwu-members-must-continue-the-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"APWU Members Must Continue the Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Of 264 facilities studied for closure, 223 were approved for consolidation. Six are still being studied. Only 35 consolidations were disapproved \u2014 at this time.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Postal Service\u2019s announcement on Feb. 23 that it has approved 223 mail processing plants for consolidation<\/a> [PDF] leaves union members just one option, APWU President Cliff Guffey said: We must continue the fight!<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means getting Congress to act now to Save America\u2019s Postal Service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In \u201cstand-up talks<\/a>\u201d with employees on Feb. 22, managers emphasized that consolidations would not take place until after May 15, when a six-month moratorium on consolidations expires. The moratorium was intended to give Congress \u201cthe opportunity to enact an alternate plan,\u201d postal officials pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Postal Service has sent a clear message,\u201d Guffey said. \u201cIf Congress does not take action before the moratorium expires, management intends to dismantle the mail processing network.<\/p>\n

\u201cAPWU members must reach out to their senators and representatives now and urge them to support legislation that will correct the underlying cause of the USPS financial crisis without slashing service, eliminating jobs, and destroying the network of plants and post offices that keeps the mail moving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Congressionally-manufactured crisis caused by mandates in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006,\u201d Guffey said. \u201cIt has taken just six years for that terrible law to bring the Postal Service to the edge of extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guffey asked every postal employee to join the struggle. \u201cThe folks that got good news should keep up the fight, too,\u201d the union president said, \u201cbecause the Postal Service was clear: 35 consolidations were disapproved at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Service Standards Are Crucial<\/strong><\/p>\n

Management also pointed out that the consolidations can only be implemented if service standards are revised. The APWU, along with a committed group of senators, has been working to prevent changes to service standards, by seeking support for amendments to the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical that APWU members ask their senators to support the amendments,\u201d Guffey said. In its current form, S. 1789 fails to adequately address the cause of the Postal Service\u2019s financial difficulties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amendments offered by the 27 senators would prevent the closures of hundreds of mail processing plants and thousands of post offices, halt the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs, and stop drastic reductions in service to the American people,\u201d Guffey said. \u201cWe must urge Congress to act now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Total Mail Processing Facilities 461
\nStudied for Consolidation 264
\nApproved for Consolidation 223
\nStill Being Studied 6
\nConsolidation Disapproved 35<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of 264 facilities studied for closure, 223 were approved for consolidation. Six are still being studied. Only 35 consolidations were disapproved \u2014 at this time. The Postal Service\u2019s announcement on Feb. 23 that it has approved 223 mail processing plants for consolidation [PDF] leaves union members just one option, APWU President Cliff Guffey said: We […]<\/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-3751","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\/3751","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=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3756,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions\/3756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}