April 29, 2021

Union objects to consolidation plans

Not surprisingly, the American Postal Workers Union quickly objected to the USPS announcement that it will consolidate 18 mail processing plants.  The USPS management announcement said:

• The movement of mail processing operations at 18 facilities previously paused in 2015. Those select moves will follow USPS’ existing contractual process and be completed by November 2021. Due to the decline in mail volume, we will relocate or remove unnecessary letter and flat sorting equipment as appropriate to make space for much needed package processing. Moving, removing, and repurposing mail processing equipment and operations or “operational mail moves” is an ongoing Postal Service strategy dating back decades that allows for more efficient, timely delivery of mail and packages. A list of impacted facilities is available at usps.com/deliveringforamerica .

The APWU somehow is certain that consolidating facilities in the wake of large mail volume declines will “further delay mail”:

• “We have made crystal clear to postal management that any further plant consolidations are a misguided strategy that not only disrupts the lives of postal workers but will further delay mail,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “The previous plant closings and consolidations were a complete failure and we will fight back facility-by-facility and community-by-community to save these processing plants. After a year of courageous and essential frontline work in this pandemic, management’s actions are a slap in the face of postal workers.”

The APWU has created a “fightback committee” to lead its opposition to reducing the mail plant footprint.

The DeJoy plan will ultimately be a business school case study about trying to run as a self-sustaining business an executive branch agency created and overseen by Congress, with 70 percent labor cost represented by strong public unions.  Indeed, the ten-year plan consolidates and restates the many businesslike initiatives USPS leaders have discussed and tried over the years.  Very little of the plan is novel.