Postal workers from the New York Metro Area Postal Union (NYMAPU) rallied against planned service cuts that would potentially eliminate Saturday mail delivery in front of the city’s main post office on West 31 Street on Wednesday.
After the United States Postal Service (USPS) projected that it could amass a $238 billion deficit by the year 2020, the government-provided postal service decided to downsize some of their services, including cutting six-day mail delivery down to five days.
“The general public is entitled to six-day delivery. We know how important the mail is to so many people, and this is a guaranteed right of the Constitution. This is not a gift,” said NYMAPU President Clarice Torrence, referring to Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to “establish post offices and post roads.”
All workers involved in the operation would be affected, including maintenance workers, mail carriers, window clerks, and drivers. Union workers were seen carrying posters and yelling slogans to save Saturday mail delivery.
Torrence said that the service cuts are unnecessary and may result in customers turning to private couriers, which offer services at higher prices but provide more convenience.
“It's a lot of mismanagement of the funds they already have, and cutting service to the customers is running customers away from the post office instead of expanding services, making things more available,” she said, adding that there are often long lines at the post office because there are too few clerks at the windows.
The American Postal Workers Union (APWU), which represents more than 200,000 postal workers in the country, stated that there is another reason for the USPS’s large budget deficit: The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act passed by the Congress in 2006 requires USPS to pre-fund future retirees’ health care costs.
“As a result of the pre-funding mandate, before the Postal Service sells its first stamp, it begins every fiscal year more than $5 billion in debt,” the APWU said.
Without the mandate, the USPS would have instead accumulated a surplus of $3.7 billion over the past three fiscal years, they said. The union wants Congress to repeal the retiree pre-funding mandate and recover funds.
The APWU also said that the projected budget deficits are too exaggerated. In order for the USPS to lose $238 billion in 10 years, it will have to lose $23.8 billion each year, which is more than twice what the USPS has ever lost, even during its worst year, they said.
They also urged the USPS to stop offering mailing discounts to corporate businesses to retain larger profits.
James Moore, a postal worker who processes mail, was at the rally passing out fliers to the passersby. He said that without Saturday mail service, the mail volume would pile up, and important deliveries will be delayed by at least two to three days.
“It's more work, and … as far as the public, it affects them because if you're expecting medication—a lot of people get medication from the postal service—that will get delayed until Monday,” he said.
The post office hours have also been cut. The James A. Farley Post Office at West 31 Street stopped having 24-hour clerk windows in May 2009. These services are important to the public, especially on tax days, Moore said.
“Their way of saving money is to eliminate the service and then eventually eliminate the jobs,” he added.
