Labor -Community Solidarity : NALC Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive May 11,2013.

Postal workers at a Postal Regulatory Commission hearing April 10 , 2013.

Postal W

 

Debbie Szeredy APWU local 3722 president

Nation’s Captal /Southern Maryland APWU loacl president ,

Dena Briscoe & Joe Piette retired  letter carrier of USPS

 

World Workers Newspaper.

USPS continues attack on workers despite pulling back on Saturday deliveries

By Joseph Piette on April 12, 2013 » Add the first comment.

Postal activists display unity after the Regulatory Commission hearing.
WW photo: Joseph Piette

 

Washington, D.C. — Postal workers present at a Postal Regulatory Commission hearing on April 10 withheld applause when the United States Postal Service  representative announced that Saturday mail delivery would not be curtailed. Just three weeks earlier, before the April 10 hearing here, tens of thousands of workers and community activists had joined hundreds of rallies demanding continued six-day delivery.

The members of the American Postal Workers Union, the National Mail Handlers Union, and the National Association of Letter Carriers in the audience knew the announcement was only a temporary decision. Also, six-day delivery was just one of the many issues they had come to talk about at the hearing.

The Board of Governors of the USPS “will follow the law and has directed the Postal Service to delay implementation of its new delivery schedule,” stated the press release.  The board also announced plans to request rate increases for certain products and to reopen negotiations with the four postal unions, even though contracts were just recently signed. (about.usps.com, April 10)

National Association of Letter Carriers president, Fredric Rolando, later responded: “Asking the NALC to renegotiate a contract that was just settled in January is insulting and unnecessary.” He instead called for the reduction or elimination of the crushing $5.5 billion pre-funding burden that has caused more than 90 percent of this year’s financial loss so far. (nalc.org, April 10)

Postal workers are convinced that the USPS, fearing more resistance in the future, is speeding up other drastic measures that will significantly delay mail and permanently damage the nation’s mail system.

Local APWU president’s challenge


Since 2012, the USPS has closed 114 mail processing plants, one third of the country’s mail processing capacity. Reneging on its commitment to lawmakers and communities, the agency announced last month that it was accelerating plans to close even more mail processing facilities. The USPS said it will consolidate 55 plants this year that were originally scheduled for “possible” closure in 2014.

A Postal Service study indicated that revenue lost from consolidations could be as high as $5.2 billion. In addition, the Postal Service has reduced hours at approximately 6,500 post offices and plans to cut hours at 6,500 more.

The APWU Local 3722 president, Debbie Szeredy, traveled to the hearing from Newburgh, N.Y., to file a formal complaint with the PRC.  She argued that the  consolidation of 55 facilities should not be allowed to proceed. These include her own Mid-Hudson processing and distribution plant, previously scheduled for closure in 2014 but now moved up to 2013.  Her local also contacted union officials at 35 of the 55 endangered plants, encouraging them to file their own complaints.

Szeredy’s complaint pointed out that decisions are being made based on area mail processing studies that are up to five years old.  Much has changed in those years, including higher productivity and lower labor costs.

In addition, the Postal Service has refused to provide unredacted copies of the completed AMP feasibility studies, and failed to consider the effects of plant closings on area small businesses. Communities potentially affected have not been provided with adequate public notice of the new accelerated plan, announced just a few weeks ago.

The complaint argues that because of these failures, the Postal Service should hold a new meeting about the Mid-Hudson plant, provide a new cost-savings analysis based on updated data and share unredacted reports with the union.  Until these things are done, the PRC should stop any further plant consolidations.

Postal workers in the room did applaud after Szeredy’s statement, as well as for other testimony that supported the future of the Postal Service.
In addition to testimony from Nation’s Capital/Southern Maryland Area APWU Local president, Dena Briscoe, and several members of Community Postal Workers United, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) spoke in support of Szeredy’s points. This was the first time a sitting congressional representative had ever addressed the PRC.

Community march May 11-12


This writer also spoke. He described how the PRC’s decisions impact our communities, which are still suffering from the capitalist crash of 2007.  Congressional sequestration and austerity compounds that continuing crisis.  So too does the push by financial institutions and multinational corporations to dismantle and privatize the postal system, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Post office closings and slashed services especially affect seniors, the disabled, the incarcerated, immigrants, rural communities, people without permanent housing and communities of color.  Every job eliminated is less money spent in these neighborhoods. Postal workers cannot defeat such powerful forces without the help of the communities they serve.

The Mantua area of Philadelphia where I delivered mail had the lowest rate of prenatal care in the country.  Today, Philadelphia has the highest rate of deep poverty in the country — that is, people living with incomes below half of the official poverty line of $5,700 for a single person and $11,700 for a family of four.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s  Poor People’s Campaign, which is being commemorated with a march from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., on May 11 and 12.  Postal workers are being encouraged by Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services to join the event because the struggle to save the post office is part of the fight against poverty.

It will be an opportunity to applaud the unity of our struggles.

Joseph Piette retired from the USPS in 2011.

Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C.

Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.    This Sat., April 13, you are invited to a     NYC Planning Meeting for the 3 p.m. at the Solidarity Center 147 W. 24th St., 2nd floor (between 6th and 7th Aves.) Half a century later, the nightmare of unemployment, racism and repression are alive now more than ever. We must fight to prevent Dr. King’s Dream from becoming a Nightmare. That’s why you need to join The POOR PEOPLE’S MARCH on WASHINGTON, D.C. Saturday, May 11 From Baltimore to D.C. Sunday, May 12  Participate in the People’s Power Assembly in D.C. JOBS NOT JAILS – STOP THE WAR AGAINST YOUNG PEOPLE          END RACIST POLICE TERROR & MASS INCARCERATION WORKER & IMMIGRANT RIGHTS NOW STOP CLOSING SCHOOLS, POST OFFICES & HOSPITALS HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE & HEALTH CARE            MARCH from BALTIMORE to WASHINGTON, D.C., to REVIVE DR. KING’S RADICAL, FIGHTING SPIRIT Join young people, poor people, community activists, workers’ rights activists and families from across the region and the country who will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March for Freedom and Jobs led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by MARCHING 40 MILES FROM BALTIMORE, MD TO WASHINGTON, D.C., on Sat., May 11,  which is the 45th anniversary of the Poor People’s March Dr. King was to lead before he was murdered. When the march arrives in Washington, there will be a PEOPLE’S POWER ASSEMBLY in FREEDOM PLAZA on Sun., May 12, to plan a campaign of mass action around the demands listed above as well as other demands. Conditions are as bad today as they were when Dr. King was alive and conditions are getting worse. Help “occupy” this anniversary and turn it into a rallying call to revive the radical, militant, fighting spirit of Dr. King that’s so desperately needed today. THE POOR PEOPLE’S MARCH was initiated by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Baltimore Chapter and the Baltimore People’s Power Assembly. It has been endorsed by hundreds of organizations and activists from around the country. There will be vans for those who are not able to walk the full distance. If you cannot participate through the whole weekend of May 11 and May 12, come and participate in part of it. For more information, call 212.633.6646 or email BaltimorePeoplesAssembly@gmail.com.  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend Copyright © 2013 Solidarity Center, All rights reserved. You are subscribed to IAC Solidarity Center action alerts. Our mailing address is: Solidarity Center 147 W. 24th St., FL 2 New York, NY 10011 Add us to your address book

 

 

PRESS RELEASE: Postal Activist from New York files formal complaint with the Postal Regulatory Commission to stop all USPS closures. Hearing April 10^th in Washington,DC.

 

April 8, 2013

 

Tom Dodge – (410) 857-9405

Debbie Szeredy – (845) 567-1866

 

 

POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING

 

  Wednesday, April 10, 2013 – 11:00am

901 New York Ave, NW Washington D.C.

 

 

   POSTAL ACTIVIST’s from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other major cites will be attending to voice concerns as to the destruction of the Postal Service from EXCESSIVE CUTS & CLOSURES and ask for IMMEDIATE CEASE & DESIST.

 

APWU Local 3722 President Debby Szeredy from Mid-Hudson Valley, New York has filed a formal complaint with the PRC ( Postal regulatory Commission ) asking for intervention of the closings until further studies can be completed.

 

   In January, USPS announced the closing of 81 Mail Sorting Facilities ( P & DC’s ) by July 2013. In March USPS has accelerated P & DC closing adding 18 moreto  the list and in the last month adding 54 more P & DC’s that were to closed in 2014.

 

   In 2011 28 P & DC’s were closed. In 2012, 48 P & DC’s were closed. With the schedule of closing of more 150 additional P & DC’s, bringing the total to 229 closed, 50 % of the P &DC’s across the country.

 

   With a reported drop in mail volume of 25%, USPS is closing 50% of the Mail Sorting Facilities resulting in relaxing delivery standards for 1^st class mail from overnight to 2 or 3 day delivery.

 

Postal Activists across the country are calling for BOLD DYNAMIC ACTION’s to  “ Save the Postal Service “. ( see attached Newsletter )

The PRC has the power to stop all actions by the Postal Service until studies are conducted and/or Congress creates a reform bill to restructure the operations to be viable into the future.

Contrary to recent news stories, mail volume has not dropped anywhere near the amount, that requires the extreme cuts & closure that are being made. The Post Office is still a necessary service to the American People and as essential part of the country for a prosperous economy.

From PRC’s Website :

 The Commission is an independent agency that has exercised regulatory oversight over the Postal Service since its creation by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.

The law assigns new and continuing oversight responsibilities to the PRC, including annual determinations of Postal Service compliance with applicable laws, development of accounting practices and procedures for the Postal Service, review of the Universal Service requirement, and assurance of transparency through periodic reports. New enforcement tools include subpoena power, authority to direct the Postal Service to adjust rates and to take other remedial actions, and levying fines in cases of deliberate noncompliance with applicable postal laws.

 

 

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