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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2015)
June 5, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $13.75 per year for union members, $20 a year for all others. Send a check for that amount, indicating mailing address and union affilia- tion, to P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213. For 25 or more subscriptions, group rates of $9.60 a year per person are available to trade union organizations. Call 503-288-3311 for de- tails. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When or- dering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 IRS PROBLEMS? • Haven’t filed for ... years? • Lost records? • Liens - Levies - Garnishments? • Negotiate settlements. • Prepare offer in Compromise. Call Nancy D. Anderson Enrolled Agent NPTI Fellow/America’s Tax Expert LTC-1807 www.nancydanderson.com 503-244-2577 Bend, Eugene mail processing centers to remain open The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has taken the postal processing centers in Bend and Eugene off of the closure list. The process- ing centers will remain open for the foreseeable future. For more than a year, postal unions, retiree associations, ru- ral organizations, and small business interests have protested the plant closures and mail de- lay. May 14 was a national day of action held in more than 50 cities to protest mail plant clo- sures and layoffs. On May 15, hundreds of postal supporters rallied at the Eugene/Springfield plant. Prior to that, on May 13, Ore- gon’s entire Congressional del- egation met with Deputy Post- master General Ronald Stroman in Washington, D.C., where they called on USPS to keep Ore- gon’s remaining mail processing facilities open in light of the de- layed mail delivery times. The mail processing plant in Salem closed in May 2013, and a mail processing plant in Pendleton went down in April of this year. The Bend facility closed its par- cel and large letter/magazine sorting operation in April, but retained regular letter sorting. Photo courtesy of Jamie Partridge PAGE 2 | Postal supporters rally at the Eugene/Springfield processing plant on May 15. “Keeping the mail processing centers in Bend and Eugene open is the only decision that makes any sense,” said U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley in a press re- lease. “(This) decision is a step in the right direction, but this is- n’t a final victory, and I’m com- mitted to working with my col- leagues to make sure that these centers permanently come off of the closure list. Mail sent from Bend to Bend should obviously not be shipped to Portland to be processed. We have to make sure that we don’t continue to degrade our mail delivery stan- dard and put people out of work.” Nearly half the nation’s USPS mail processing and dis- tribution centers (141) were closed in 2012-13, and another 30 closed in April of this year. Approximately 50 more plants were set to close in July, includ- ing Eugene/Springfield. Those closures are now on hold. As of Jan. 5, the delivery of overnight, in-town first class mail was eliminated nationwide. Two-to-three day service has be- come three-to-five day service. According to the USPS’ own data, the new standards are only being met approximately 85 percent of the time (prior stan- dards were being met 98 percent of the time). “Our pressure on the Post- master General is working,” said Jamie Partridge, a retired Portland letter carrier and a leader of Portland Communities and Postal Workers United, a group dedicated to the preserva- tion and expansion of the public postal service. “Growing resist- ance to the dismantling of the people’s postal service is bear- ing fruit.” Postal management says the cuts and closures are necessary because the USPS is losing money. But critics say that a 2006 Congressional mandate, which forces the U.S. Postal Service to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance, has created a phony financial crisis. Although the USPS has claimed a “loss” every year since 2006, due primarily to the pre-fund mandate, the postal service has not made an actual payment to- ward prefunding since 2011. The USPS has generated an op- erating profit for the last six quarters, union officials said.
