Sorting and Delivery Centers, and the Postal Service's 10-Year Plan

May 24, 2023

APWU family, I hope you and your family are well. There is a lot to talk about because a lot is going on.

Every day, there are changes on the workroom floor. You don’t know what to expect from day to day.

Today, there’s a machine to work on, and tomorrow it’s gone or out of service, and you’re told to go to the infamous blue room (standby).

The days of bargaining in good faith have long gone out the window. The Postal Service has a new leader and a new mindset. The apparent order is to get the job done without regard for the contract, rhyme, or reason.

Management, on every level, seems to have traded their consciences and integrity to save their jobs. Some have left the Postal Service because they didn’t like what they saw coming down the pipeline.

DeJoy’s Delivering for America plan is in full effect and going full steam ahead. It has kicked Article 12 into full gear and is coming with a vengeance.

As I write this article, the Northeast Region was notified of 20 Clerk Craft Article 12 impacts based on the creation of the Sorting and Delivery Centers (S&DCs). Seven were canceled.

The alleged reason, (per Article 12 Regional Notification): “The purpose of creating the S&DCs is to reduce transportation and mail handling costs, as well as provide Postal customers with additional services.”

What additional services will be provided? Management can’t answer the question.

How would creating the S&DCs reduce transportation costs?

The Postal Supervisor Magazine said, “An internal USPS presentation from July 29, 2022, shows that the plan adds about 12 or 13 miles to each route, one-way, which, for the 100,000 routes that will be relocated from existing post offices, adds up to something like 700 million more miles annually. The Postal Service has yet to explain how the plan will ‘minimize unnecessary transportation’ or how, even with all these additional miles, it will reduce costs overall.”

Some points from the Postal Service’s 10-Year Plan:

• We will align retail footprint, hours, and services to meet evolving customer demands. We will continually evaluate operations at our retail facilities to ensure that services are cost-effective while also providing adequate community access.
• Evaluate and consolidate low-traffic stations and branches of city Post Offices into nearby full-service retail Post Offices.

What does this sound like to you?

• ENHANCE EMPLOYEE SAFETY AND WELLBEING throughout these organizational changes, the Postal Service will continue to work collaboratively with our unions and management associations to support managers and bargaining unit employees as we continue to foster safety as a core value throughout the organization.
• We believe firmly in putting the 644,000 women and men of the Postal Service in the best possible position to succeed in their mission of service.

The Northeast Region has seen an increase in reported cases of abuse, harassment, and intimidation at the hands of postal management. The Postal Service, at the Area and HQ level, is aware of this, but do they care? They prefer to talk the talk rather than walk it because it sounds good.

In a Time Magazine interview with DeJoy, the reporter wrote, “Once in office, Trump offered DeJoy an ambassadorship. He turned it down. “I wanted something I could fi x,” he said.

Is the Postal Service a joke to him? A toy? Well, it’s not to us. We’re invested in the Postal Service. We want to see it thrive and survive, and not be destroyed.

You can trust that the Northeast Region leadership will always fight for our members, the community, and the Postal Service. If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for everything.

I know the other Regional Coordinators (Omar Gonzalez, Sharyn Stone, AJ Jones, and Yared Wonde) feel the same way.