{"id":7647,"date":"2014-05-23T15:58:15","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T20:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=7647"},"modified":"2014-05-23T15:58:15","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T20:58:15","slug":"postal-service-tries-to-ditch-door-delivery-letter-carriers-fight-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2014\/05\/23\/postal-service-tries-to-ditch-door-delivery-letter-carriers-fight-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal service tries to ditch door delivery, letter carriers fight back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite telling local KATU news that it\u2019s \u201cjust an idea.. we\u2019re not really pushing for it…it\u2019s just a discussion\u2026 they\u2019re just talking about in Congress\u201d (http:\/\/www.katu.com\/news\/local\/Mail-delivery-to-your-front-door-may-go-away–260417771.html?tab=video&c=y<\/a>), the Portland District of the US Postal Service is indeed soliciting property owners and managers to \u201cconvert\u201d from at-the-door to at-the-corner \u201ccluster box\u201d mail delivery.\u00a0 And the local letter carriers union is fighting back. \"cluster-boxes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Jim Falvey, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, branch 82 (Portland-area), \u201cthe Portland District has instituted a program that involves the solicitation of property managers and\/or owners whose location has multiple delivery points.\u00a0 One example was Royal Villa, a fifty-five and over retirement community located in King City near Tigard, with about 250 door-to-door deliveries.\u00a0 Postal management solicited the property managing firm and offered to install cluster boxes free of charge and maintain them at no cost.\u00a0 In return the postal service wanted to eliminate door-to-door delivery.\u201d\u00a0 Postal management does not have to ask or even inform the residents that this \u201cconversion\u201d is going to occur, if they get the cooperation of the manager or owner of the property.<\/p>\n

Falvey was incensed to learn that\u00a0 residents of Royal Villa, many of whom are elderly or frail, would be forced to walk some distance in the wind, rain, snow, ice, dark and other dangerous conditions to retrieve their mail.\u00a0 And of course, he was angered that letter carrier work would be reduced and jobs eliminated.\u00a0 Alerted by a local mail carrier, who found out through a manager\u2019s slip of the tongue, the union president contacted Royal Villa\u2019s property manager and convinced her to stand up to the postal service offer of free mail boxes.\u00a0 Falvey was also ready to knock on doors at Royal Villa, if the property manager had decided to go with \u201cconversion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter carriers union, both locally and on a national level, is mobilizing to fight cluster box conversions, which would change the one-third of deliveries now at-the-door and eliminate 80,000 mail carrier jobs (http:\/\/nalc.org\/news\/latest\/12062013_soliciting.html<\/a>) The postal service, according to a recently released Government Accountability Office report, could save up to 55 percent per delivery by converting from at-the-door to cluster boxes. The Postmaster General Donahoe, President Obama, and committees in the House and the Senate, led by Representative Issa and Senators Carper and Coburn, are all proposing legislation to allow this service cut, based on an alleged postal financial crisis.\u00a0 Congress itself is responsible for the postal \u201cdebt\u201d, through a 2006 mandate to pre-fund retiree benefits 75 years ahead.\u00a0 Without this mandate, the postal service would have been profitable.<\/p>\n

At their state convention, the Oregon State Association of Letter Carriers (OSALC) resolved to fight for at-the-door delivery which \u201cfacilitates quality service, such as individualized parcel and bulk mail drop and pick-up locations\u201d as well as \u201cresidential customer contact, which protects the health and welfare of neighborhoods, especially looking-in on the frail and seniors.\u201d\u00a0 Business customers also benefit from at-the-door delivery, as contact with letter carriers facilitates appropriate shipping and receiving opportunities.\u00a0 The OSALC also noted that \u201ccluster box mail receptacles are less secure than at-the-door and are more often targets for mail thieves\u201d and \u201cmail is more likely to accumulate day-to-day and more likely to be dropped on the ground, leading to litter problems\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the lead of Canadian postal workers, who are also facing the elimination of at-the-door delivery (http:\/\/labornotes.org\/blogs\/2014\/02\/canadian-postal-workers-battle-save-door-door-delivery<\/a>) OSALC is encouraging local branches to mount campaigns to inform business and residential customers about the dangers of ditching door delivery.\u00a0 Fortunately, postal regulations require that property owners or \u201cowners\u2019 associations\u201d or \u201cmanagers\u201d approve, in writing, the conversion from at-the-door delivery.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the USPS can insist that any new housing, where delivery has not been established, can be forced to receive mail at a cluster box.<\/p>\n

Active letter carriers \u201cmust not engage in campaigns for or against changes in mail service,\u201d according to postal regulations.\u00a0 However, their labor unions, retirees, and community allies are not so restricted.\u00a0 Taking a tip from the Canadians, local unions plan to contact media and elected officials for support.<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0Jamie Partridge, May 23, 2014<\/p>\n

Jamie Partridge is a retired letter carrier and an organizer with Communities and Postal Workers United<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite telling local KATU news that it\u2019s \u201cjust an idea.. we\u2019re not really pushing for it…it\u2019s just a discussion\u2026 they\u2019re just talking about in Congress\u201d (http:\/\/www.katu.com\/news\/local\/Mail-delivery-to-your-front-door-may-go-away–260417771.html?tab=video&c=y), the Portland District of the US Postal Service is indeed soliciting property owners and managers to \u201cconvert\u201d from at-the-door to at-the-corner \u201ccluster box\u201d mail delivery.\u00a0 And the local letter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usps-new-bytes","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7647","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=7647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7649,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7647\/revisions\/7649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}