Protecting Our Communities Worldwide

The 118th Congress is taking up a “Sense of the House” Resolution (HRes 277) calling on the Postal Service to restore Service Standards to July 1, 2012. While a House Resolution is not binding, nor law, the APWU fully supports its passage. There are currently 30 co-sponsors. A consensus from Congress in the form of HRes 277 would represent a step in the right direction as we continually seek congressional legislative and binding action that would compel the USPS to restore the prompt Service Standards prior to 2012.

Prompt service has taken a nose dive. The PMGs' Donahue/ Brennan plans consolidated over 160 plants including the removal of cancelling machines, mail processing equipment, and degrading Service Standards, affecting mail service. Now we have the “10 Year PMG DeJoy Plan.” He took out more mail processing machines in 2020. Now he is consolidating the mail and workers into large warehouses, and has twice degraded Service Standards to deliver mail slower. The USPS is a service that is to provide prompt mail services which, by the way, includes prompt service for our mail-in ballots, protecting democracy in our communities nationwide.

At the Postal Forum (May 25th) DeJoy said we were a “haphazard bureaucratic organization.” His plan is for “dramatic change” in how we perform our service. He is going after the Postal Service’s regulators, the PRC and Congress. DeJoy said his changes “must be done at a pace and with tenacity, that is rarely seen and rarely necessary in government or private industry.”

We provided prompt service to our communities in 2012, when we had a network where all mail processing centers had cancelling and mail processing equipment to help provide more overnight delivery. We can go back to the 2012 Service Standards, and it can be done more affordably than the costs that are being incurred now with the PMG’s network modernization plan. Many of the mail processing plants that were consolidated after 2012 are still operating as hubs with space to bring back mail processing equipment. We are also short staffed and we need to hire more employees no matter what plan is in place.

• 2020 DeJoy took out machines before the elections, that were never returned, and now has plans to eliminate 200 (his words) “small and wasteful” annexes and “cost cutting” across the USPS delivery network that is responsible for reaching 165 million households six days a week.
• Service Standards have been degraded twice by DeJoy, causing more delays and a slowdown of mail services.
• Service losses from DeJoy raising prices for mail service, PO Boxes, attacks on the bulk mail, de-valuing the handling of the certified return receipt option, and the good services that postal workers have provided for years. Passport appointments are being limited, and the trust from our communities is deteriorating. Our real opportunity for expanding good services to communities like postal banking has been placed on hold.
• DeJoy is taking carriers further away from the communities they serve, and consolidating the mail and the work away from the communities. DeJoy is moving operations to large warehouses that put services in danger when there is a power outage or natural disaster at a warehouse location.

If you are interested, visit “Congress.gov” and type in: HRes.277, click on the co-sponsor link in blue, to see the list of representatives from both parties that have signed on.