Postal Service ‘business’

This commentary is in response to the article concerning the Postal Service reforms published in the April 16 edition of the Bangor Daily News. In this article, it was stated that six-day delivery could be threatened unless the U.S. Postal Service is allowed to run “more like a business.”

The Postal Service was created in 1971 as a result of the Postal Reorganization Act, which made the service a quasi-government agency that is required to break even over time and provide universal service. The letter you mail from Bangor to Fort Kent costs you 34 cents. So does a letter from Bangor to Portland, Ore. What other “business” gives you that type of value?

As an organization that represents over 300,000 Postal Service employees, we have a vested interest in the continued success of the Postal Service as a viable entity. We also have a substantial interest in the Postal Service as customers of its services and we want those services to remain affordable and fair.

Fairness to rural regions and whether Postal management is capable of the prudent use of financial resources are the fundamental questions the Postal Service must answer prior to restructuring its “business” model yet again. The Postal Service built a brand new processing plant in Hampden at a cost of approximately $15 million in 1994. It is currently an underused asset as automated equipment originally destined for Hampden was redirected to Portland in the name of efficiency. Is this the efficiency goal that Ms. Johnson referred to in the article?

A little known fact of Postal Service “business” practices is the discount given to presort houses and direct mailers at your expense. The June 30 rate increase, as with previous ones, includes discounts for mailers that save them nearly nine to 10 cents per letter. It costs us only one to two cents per letter to process that same mail, and often we reprocess the mail that was delivered to us presorted with the discount still being paid to presort businesses. What other “business” offers a sale to a select few of its customers at rates up to 800 percent more than its cost of that service? This results in a hemorrhage of money that has largely contributed to the current fiscal mess we’re in.

The article stated, ” A restructuring of the Postal Service likely would result in some job losses and plant closings…” There are presently two plants in the state of Maine: Hampden and Portland. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that if Portland builds a $65 million plant in Scarborough, which plant would be slated for closure – Hampden. The only way mail could be processed in a timely fashion for northern Maine in Scarborough would be for the Postal Service to downgrade service standards and make Maine a two day state for First Class and Standard mail. What will that do to the business climate for northern and central Maine if mail delivery standards-wise we become a second class citizen?

It seems that a wiser use of Postal Service resources would be to save $65 million and redirect some of the mail flow that is backing up at the current Portland facility up here to Hampden from the 043, 045 and 048 areas. All that needs to be done is to adjust some HCR routes and utilize wasted space on Harlow Street in Bangor that we are already renting. Portland can handle 040 through 042 as it does now. Logistically and financially it makes sense, and it keeps mail processing in Maine. If all mail processing were to move south to just across the border from New Hampshire, how long will it be until the next round of postal restructuring moves that work out of state?

In 1989, Bangor lost its Management Sectional Center (MSC) status in an effort to restructure the Postal Service to improve service and save money. Management jobs moved south. In 1992, the Postal Service did an internal reorganization to split each mail processing facility into Customer Service and Mail Processing – again to save money and improve service. This required more manager jobs to oversee existing operations. Will this latest version of the Postal Service’s vision for the future follow that historical trend and does its effort to become a “business” really have to cost Maine businesses the ability to compete?

Gary Walcutt is the president of the Bangor Area Local 536 American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO.