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09\/16\/2014<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>–\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The four postal unions are standing together at the national, state and local level to fight the Postmaster General\u2019s plans to again slash the mail processing network, beginning in January. Eighty-two facilities are slated for closure, and service will be degraded further.<\/p>\n Thanks in large part to the efforts of postal workers across the country, a bipartisan group of 51 Senators and 160 U.S. Representatives have called for a moratorium on the devastating cuts.<\/p>\n Despite management\u2019s false claims, the consolidations will end overnight delivery of single-piece first-class mail \u2013 even mail sent from one address to another within the same city or town, and even in areas where plants are not being closed or consolidated. \u201cWe must make sure the American people understand this fact, and we must mobilize them to work with us,\u201d said Executive Vice President Debby Szeredy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe USPS is relying on obsolete studies to justify the consolidations and refusing to hold new public meetings to solicit input from residents and businesses,\u201d she said. \u201cWe must demand that management conducts new studies and holds new public meetings. If they refuse, locals should organize meetings themselves,\u201d Szeredy said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no distinction between \u2018gaining facilities\u2019 and \u2018losing facilities\u2019 in this fight,\u201d said President Mark Dimondstein. \u201cIf overnight delivery is eliminated, America loses. Customers will leave the Postal Service in droves and the downward spiral of the USPS will continue. We will all feel the effect.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a fight we must wage together \u2013 all facilities, all offices, all postal workers \u2013 along with the people of the country,\u201d Dimondstein said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the postal unions realize that if management pushes consolidation through, the effect will be devastating on all of us,\u201d Szeredy said. In August, the four unions held a joint webinar to train organizers at each of the 82 sites. The webinar marked the first time the four unions have engaged in joint training. Representatives of the APWU, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association participated at the national, state and local level.<\/p>\n The APWU has published a toolkit outlining many of the steps involved in building resistance to the consolidations. (Find it at\u00a0<\/span>www.apwu.org\/ConsolidationToolkit<\/a>.) The unions are also looking into investing in studies to show the real costs of consolidation \u2013 for the USPS and for individual communities. At the national level, the union filed a Step 4 Dispute protesting the USPS consolidation actions, and is exploring legal options.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this fight won\u2019t be won in the grievance procedure alone or in court,\u201d Szeredy said. \u201cIt will be won with the support of people whose communities are about to lose jobs and good postal service.\u201d<\/p>\n
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