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August 5, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
On USPS birthday, Portlanders deliver a message
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Paula
Chanting, marching through the
Main Post Office in downtown
Portland, singing, and eating
birthday cake, about three dozen
“postal defenders” called for
continuation of door-to-door
mail delivery, and expressed
concern about relocating the
Main Post Office.
The rally was held July 26 in
conjunction with the 241st birth-
day of the U.S. Postal Service.
The postal service has been
under assault for years. Over
200,000 union jobs have been
lost in the past 10 years as post
offices and mail processing
plants have been cut and closed.
Mail is being delayed. At-the-
door delivery is on the chopping
block.
Jim Cook, retired president of
the National Association of Let-
ter Carriers (NALC) Branch 82,
said there is a bipartisan Postal
Service Reform bill in Congress
(HR 5714) that would end door-
to-door delivery nationwide in
favor of cluster boxes.
“We’ve been fighting for
postal reform, but not negative
postal reform,” Cook said.
NALC is lobbying for an
amendment to delete Section 202
of the bill — the portion that man-
dates ending door delivery.
Rallygoers also called on Port-
Postal defenders rally to save USPS on its 241st birthday.
land postal officials to hold pub-
lic meetings before relocating the
Main Post Office. NALC said
Democratic Congressional repre-
sentatives in the area have writ-
ten to Portland’s district manager
requesting public meetings be
held prior to any agreements be-
ing signed.
The Portland Development
Commission is on track to buy
the U.S. Postal Service campus
located on 13.5 acres of prime
Pearl District property.
“This is the people’s postal
service, and we need to have
some say in any changes,” said
Reverend John Schwiebert,
speaking on behalf of Portland
Communities and Postal Work-
ers United. “So far, nobody is
asking us (the people) what we
would like to have in a new post
office, or where exactly it’s going
to be.”
Communities and Postal
Workers United would like to
have the new post office be close
to the current one downtown, if
not actually in the same place as
part of the new development,
Schwiebert said.
“Like Paul Revere, we need to
sound the alarm to save postal
service,” Cook said.
POLITICS
Oregon Working Families
Party challenges free-
trader Ron Wyden
At a July 23 statewide meeting,
the union-backed Oregon Work-
ing Families Party (OWFP) de-
cided to field its own candidate
to challenge Democratic incum-
bent U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden:
Shanti Lewallen, a former long-
shore worker with International
Longshore and Warehouse
Union Local 8 who’s now an at-
torney representing workers in
wage theft and discrimination
cases. OWFP usually grants or
withholds endorsement of major
party candidates, but it chose to
challenge Wyden because of his
support for fast-tracking trade
agreements like the proposed
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Thanks to a vigorous voter
registration drive, the party will
still have a ballot line for
Lewallen to run on. State law re-
quires third parties to have at
least 10,825 registered voters by
Aug. 10 to run in November.
OWFP dropped below that
when thousands switched to De-
mocrat to vote for U.S. Sen.
Bernie Sanders for president,
but OWFP’s canvass and online
efforts brought many back in af-
ter the primary.