NPMHU Reps Inform Congressman Sanders of Postal Plans to Eliminate Mail Processinig around New England and in Burlington Vermont

The NPMHU Reps from Local 301 and Vermont Branch Presidents met with Congressman Sanders and Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle to inform them of the Postal Service's plans to destroy service for over One Million of Greater Burlington Vermont's residents.  Similar plans are underway for the entire country if the Postal Service gets their way on this issue.  It's time for our members to wake up!

Along with providing Congressman Sanders and Maor Clavelle with seperate briefings about the Postal Serviuce plans for Vermont, the NPMHU representative provided detatils about the Postal Srevice's plans concerning the 'AMPing' of mail all around NEW ENGLAND and the USA.

It's about time for our members to GET ACTIVE and follow our leadership by contacting their Congressional Leaders, their Senators, their City Council Leadership, their State Representatives, and voice their concers about what the USPS is proposing to do with the Postal Service.  Below is a vebatim copy of President Losi's letter to Congressman Sanders as an example of what you can do to try to secure your future and YOUR POSTAL SERVICE.  

March 2, 2006
The Honorable Bernard Sanders
Member, U.S. Congress
Vermont at Large
1 Church Street, 2nd Floor
Burlington, VT 05401

Dear Congressman Sanders

I  wanted to thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to meet with Burlington Branch President Thomas Hay, White River Junction Branch President William Creamer and me on Monday, February 27th  to discuss our common concerns regarding the Postal Service's proposal to eliminate mail cancellation and processing in Burlington, Vermont.

As we discussed yesterday in your office, under the plan currently being studied by the Postal Service, the USPS would effectively eliminate Burlington as a Sectional Center, thereby possibly increasing the cost of mailings to most, if not all non-profit businesses and corporations in the Burlington area under this plan.  Delivery standards could be significantly compromised and Burlington would lose it's identity as a mailing area.  First class mail cancellation and other operations would cease to exist in Burlington under the present plan. There would be no such thing as an "Essex Junction, VT" postmark.  We just do not believe that this is the way to treat the hub of the Champlain Valley.

We believe that the study currently being conducted by the Postal Service is seriously flawed. For example, we do not believe that the USPS is taking into consideration the one hundred-eighty mile round trip between Burlington and White River Junction, VT (for the processing of first class mail) is marred at least half of the year by  horrendous weather conditions, considerable road construction practically year round and other significant travel related factors that that will complicate the on-time processing of Greater Burlington's mail and compromise the ability of letters mailed in Greater Burlington today to be delivered in Burlington tomorrow, even with consideration given to the most favorable of road and traveling conditions.  Mail sent from one mailbox in Burlington destined for another
Burlington address will have to travel to White River Junction to be co-mingled with all other Vermont mail as well as mail from most locations in Northern New Hampshire, then separated, then sorted, then trucked back to Burlington for delivery.  To accomplish this overnight in perfect circumstances is well nigh impossible.  To accomplish this in winter weather or during the height of tourist season will also prove very difficult.

The Postal Service's plans for Area Mail Processing, or "AMPing" the mail from one facility to another is taking place all over the country, and specifically in seven locations in the Northeast area.  The USPS already has performed 'studies' and approved "AMPing" mail from our Bridgeport CT  Facility to Stamford CT, gone ahead with "AMPing" mail from our Waterbury CT facility to Wallingford-New Haven CT,  and from our Northwest (Waltham) MA Facility to South Station (Boston) MA. 

Current 'studies' involve Area Mail Processing ("AMPing") first class mail operations from the Burlington, VT Facility to WRJ, VT, from our Portsmouth, NH Facility to Manchester, NH, from Cape Cod (Wareham) MA to Brockton, MA and from our Springfield, MA Facility, to Hartford, CT.   Once the Postal Service notifies the Union of an ongoing 'AMP study', it seems to be a done deal.  There's some paperwork to be filled out, and the 'study' is over.  The Postal Service doesn't seem to accurately factor in any additional costs, such as additional labor costs, transportation costs, fuel costs, equipment, manpower, etc.  They just do it.  It is a sham.  And it is the customers, the small business owner and the local communities that suffer the most from this process.  And they are, in many instances, not even consulted.  There are no public hearings.  There are no public notification processes.  There is no viable process at all.  You are just supposed to trust that the Postal Service knows what's best for you.  How could you possibly believe that?

The Postal Service continues to mislead its employees, change their work hours, and their tours of duty.  They lie about things like the 'AMP' studies, because they're afraid that if the employees know that their work is being sent out, they won't work as hard, but in deceiving it's employees about the fact that the work is leaving, Postal Management deprives it's employees of the opportunity to bid available positions in other areas that are open for bid.  When the Union informs it's membership that the Postal Service is planning to move mail out of the Facility, we are branded as 'liars', 'reactionaries' and worse.  Further, Postal Management reacts to us by refusing to bargain with us or communicate with us at all.  As of this writing, I have been unable to communicate with my counterparts at Area Headquarters in Windsor, Connecticut for over five months.  They simply won't meet with me or work with me because I won't keep their secrets from my members.  It seems as if upper management in the Postal Service actually requires their managers to sign 'secrecy oaths' before letting them know details of their plans, then holds them to their oaths with threats of removal from their positions if they reveal the details of the plans to eliminate mail processing operations and whole mail processing plants to their employees.  It's truly a disgraceful state of affairs.

My membership deserves to know the truth about what the Postal Service is planning to do to them and the public deserves to know that the Postal Service's plans involves the abdication of their sworn duty to deliver the mail to them overnight, not when it's convenient for the Postal Service to get around to delivering it!  Postal Management seems collectively to be on a mission to take the "Service" right out of the United States Postal Service.

We finally would stress that along with small businesses that will needlessly suffer from the implementation of the Postal Service's plan; the net result may be a significant loss of jobs to members of both our craft, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, and to members of the American Postal Workers Union as well.  We aren't asking you to speak against increasing productivity.  We are asking you to stand with us against reducing service to our customers.

We are asking you to please contact your Congressional Delegation, especially Senators Leahy and Jeffords, and voice your concerns and request that they be addressed.  In this regard, we note that the recent postal reform legislation passed by the Senate, S.662, included provisions to make the 'AMPing' process more transparent to customers and employees alike.  We also ask that you contact your Area State Representatives and State Senators to request their support in stopping the needless reduction of quality service to the business customers and community members of Greater Burlington, Vermont area.
Finally, I'd like to extend an invitation to you to visit both of the mail processing facilities in Burlington and White River Junction at your leisure so that you can meet your constituents in these facilities and hear their concerns.  Both Branch President Hay and Branch President Creamer would love to offer you a tour of the facilities and introduce you to the fine US Postal Employees, who give their heart and soul to their jobs three hundred and sixty five days a year (these places never shut their doors!). 

I'm asking you to write to NH-VT District Manager James Adams as well as Northeast Area Vice President Megan Brennan and inform them that Burlington Vermont losing the ability to cancel its mail is a travesty beyond belief and that it's just not acceptable to your or your constituency.  I ask that you stress some of the better points of this letter regarding the risk to reduction in service to your community, the business district and the resultant potential lost revenue.  I would hope that perhaps you can convey better than I the thought that the Postal Service should put more consideration behind such a venture before pulling the plug on a million customers and further that consultation with the community is not just an option, but a necessity.

Once again, I thank you for your attention and your support.  Please do not hesitate to contact me, Branch President Hay or Branch President Creamer if any one of us might be of service to you in any way.

Sincerely,

Robert P Losi, President
Local 301, NPMHU, LIUNA

Cc:  John Hegarty, President, National Postal Mail Handlers Union
       Roger Blacklow, NPMHU Legislative Director
       Thomas Hay, Branch President, Burlington, Vermont
       William Creamer, Branch President, White River Junction, Vermont File