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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2014)
Street roots Nov.'21, 2014 Merkley, workers rally to stop post office closure Critics say move toward privatizing service will replace good jobs with minimum-wage jobs BY E M IL Y GREEN STAFF WRITER lanned changes to the United States Postal Service (USPS) as it downsizes, and as mail .delivery ftioves toward privatization will delay mail, replace living-wage jobs with minimum-wage jobs, and force customers to pay higher rates for overnight local delivery, say postal union organizers. According to Portland’s postal union presideht, Brian Dunsmore, USPS losses are manufactured, in part, to pave the way toward privatization, and officials are failing . to act on proposed service expansions that would make the entity more profitable, save jobs and benefit underserved citizens. USPS losses amounted to nearly $20 billion over the last four years, and while many point to the rise of the Internet as the culprit, most of the loss can be traced to a 2006 mandate issued by a Republican-led Congress requiring USPS pay $5.6 billion a year to prefund retiree health benefits for B e m p lo y e e s 7 5 y e a r s in a d v a n c e . “N o o t h e r federal agency has ever had to do th a t,” says Dunsmore. “We’re funding health care for workers that aren’t even employed yet, and some that aren’t even bom yet* Consumer advocate Ralph Nader crunched the numbers, and in 2011 sent a letter to former senator Joe Lieberman and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) claiming that if the mandate to prefund payments had not been enacted into law, USPS would have had a $1.5 billion surplus rather than a $20 billion deficit. Postal workers are taking to the street as policy makers continue with cuts while pointing to these losses as reason to do so. Because about 25 percent of postal workers are veterans, union organizers in Portland chose Veteran’s Day to march along the - downtown waterfront and rally against the Postmaster General’s announcement that 82 mail processing plants across the country will beconsolidated in 2015. They say this will amount to a loss of 15,000 jobs and downgraded mail service. Three Oregon mail-processing centers, located in Bend, Pendleton and Eugene, are among those slated for closure. USPS has already consolidated 141 centers since 2012. According to a federal study published in September, since the initial closures two years ago, first-class mail delivery times have “generally increased* and national delivery performance is declining. Postal workers say the planned closures in Oregon will mean delays to local first-7 class service, which will go from one-day delivery to two-day delivery. Customers seeking overnight service can take their mail to FedEx or UPS, but rather than paying $0.48 for the service as they would with USPS, it will cost them upwards of $23 using F edE x or; upw ards o f $25 using UF«S. T h e se co sts w ore calculated for sending a ± I > challenging his directive to discontinue Saturday mail delivery without standard letter weighing one ounce from Congressional approval, saying that not only North Portland to downtown Portland. was the move illegal, it also would result in Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) joined the loss of 70,000 jobs. A House committee protesters on Veteran’s Day in support of later voted to block the move to five-day keeping mail centers open. “I’m going to be delivery. there with you,” he told the crowd, In addition to battling cuts tnd closures, “shoulder to postal workers worry shoulder.” . ; USPS’s no-bid A long-time partnership with the supporter of the office supply store postal workers union, "We shoiildik,t be p u ttin g chain Staples, is hardw orking Oregonians out Merkley told Street moving mail delivery Roots, “Since the ©i w ork and increasing ' toward privatization U.S. Postal Service delays in m a il delivery« No and replacing good first made their plans jobs with minimum- m atter where you liv e that public that they wage jobs. While the w ill k a rt consumers, sm all wanted to close - average postal clerk processing centers businesses, the economy and makes about $25 an and rural post offices ia Oregon, oar rig h t to vote." hour, most Staples in Oregon, I’ve been a — SEMI. JEFF MERKLEY employees earn less vocal critic and have than $10. A pilot pushed the USPS to program that put mini make sure that our post offices manned delivery standards are by Staples employees not weakened and jobs are not lost I was in 82 stores was scratched after nationwide successful in keeping our rural post offices protests, but the. retail giant’s Post Office open, and I’m going to continue to argue Approved Shipping program, which is that our processing centers in Bend, already available in thousands of stores, will Eugene and Pendleton should stay open. We continue to sell USPS products and shouldn’t be putting hardworking services. Oregonians out of work and increasing “(USPS] needs to expand service, not delays in mail delivery. No matter where you downgrade it,” says Dunsmore. “It’s a live that will hurt consumers, small backwards way of doing business.” He businesses, the economy and in Oregon, our pointed to postal banking as a potential right to vote.” solution. Merkley has called USPS “an essential In an op-ed piece published in the part of the fabric of life in Oregon.” Last Huffington Post earlier this year, Sen. year he joined Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) argued for 22 other senators in writing a letter to postal banking as a solution to two Postmaster General Patrick Donahue, problems: It would help the 68 million D ignity PHOTOS BY EMILY GREEN Un Veterans Day, postal workers and supporters gathered on the downtown waterfront to rally against the upcoming closures o f 82 mailprocessing centers, three o f which are in Oregon Union organizers say the closures will result in slower first-class mail delivery and the loss o f - 1,500jobsnationwide. A t left, Sen. Jeff Merkley (DOre.) spoke to the crowd o f postal workers, pledging to stand shoulder to shoulder" with them as they fig h t upcoming closures. Americans without bank accounts avoid predatory check cashing and payday loan store fees and increase USPS’s revenue. While Congress oversees USPS, it doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. According to a January report by USPS Office of Inspector General, U.S. families without bank accounts in 2012 spent $89 billion on interest and fees to check cashing and payday loan operators. Warren says that’s “roughly 10 percent of its annual income on interest and fees - about the same amount they spend on food.” The Inspector General’s report makes the case for supplementing USPS income by adding limited financial services, like check cashing, bill paying and e-commerce payments, at post office branches. “Financial services have been the single best new opportunity for posts to earn additional revenue. For the Postal Service, this might ultimately translate into $8.9 billion per year,” the report states. It also recommends post offices provide an alternative to payday loan operators. The average interest and fees associated with a $375 payday loan is around $520 - the same loan taken from a post office would cost borrowers $48 in interest and fees. And, the report says, it would be a relatively easy transition, and the plan is already working at many international post offices. “Instead of slowing down the mail, we should be speeding it up and looking at postal banking,” says Dunsmore, “Slowing down the mail really affects you and me.” But he says a common belief among postal workers is. that the deficit created with prepaying retiree benefits and the partnership with Staples are part of an effort to “clear legacy cost to pave the way for privatization.”
