What’s the direction for postal service here….

You’ve been hearing about cuts to the postal system…here’s the word from Scott at the local post office, with his take on the situation:

Your Friday Harbor to Friday Harbor letter may now take 2 days!

Hi, my name is Scott George. I work at the Friday Harbor Post Office. I love my job, and this community.

Here’s a little story for you. One sunny day on June 28, Bob walks in to the Friday Harbor post office with a letter. It is a bill, which is due June 29. But, hey, no problem! He deposits it in the outgoing mail slot at 8AM. Guess when it arrives at POB 200 in Friday Harbor? If all goes well… June 30. Yep, TWO day local mail!

Currently all local mail goes to the Everett Processing & Distribution Center (Everett P & DC). I know that sounds strange, but it works pretty well. They receive our mail, cancel it, sort it, and put it in delivery order for us. We receive it early the next day.

As of May 15, the USPS is closing the Everett P & DC. Your mail will now have to travel to Seattle and back. Not only is the USPS closing Everett P & DC, Fife, Kent, Redmond, Tacoma, & Tumwater are closing as well. Seattle will be taking on all the workload from those processing centers. (That is why I used the phrase “if all goes well”).

Also closing will be Pasco P & DC, and Wenatchee. More than 300 jobs will be lost, and this is just what will be happening in Washington State.

The USPS wants to close 252 processing centers nationwide, at a cost of 30,000 jobs.

OK, now, here’s the kicker…. NONE OF THIS IS NECESSARY!

I have included text from a newsletter from American Postal Workers Union president, Cliff Guffey:

“This is a Congressionally-manufactured crisis caused by mandates in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which forces the Postal Service to pre-fund 75 years of Retiree Benefits in a 10 year window! It has taken just six years for that terrible law to bring the Postal Service to the edge of extinction.”

 “The Postal Service has sent a clear message; if Congress does not take action before My 15, management intends to dismantle the mail processing network.”

“The public must reach out to their senators and representatives now and urge them to support legislation that will correct the underlying cause of the USPS financial crisis without slashing service, eliminating jobs, and destroying the network of plants and post offices that keeps the mail moving,”

“Management has pointed out that the consolidations can only be implemented if service standards are revised. The APWU, along with a committed group of senators, has been working to prevent changes to service standards, by seeking support for amendments to the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate soon.”

“The amendments offered by the 27 senators would prevent the closures of hundreds of mail processing plants and thousands of post offices, halt the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs, and stop drastic reductions in service to the American people. We must urge Congress to act now.”

As a concerned citizen, and friend, I am asking every member of this community to tell our senators to support the amendments, to S. 1789.

I understand this is a confusing and complicated issue. For the sake of brevity, I have left out a lot of other information.

Also, there is a LOT of misinformation out there. Some of it is unintentional, some intentional, and some is downright conspiratorial in nature.

Please feel free to call me for more information on this issue. My contact info is:

Scott George
360 378 7055
postal (at) rockisland.com

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