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.”