They contend also the postal service violated the “spirit” of a moratorium on closing its facilities by announcing its closure plan, and local postal workers question how the consolidation will work without violating the terms of union contracts. Both postal workers and local officials said the postal service needs to give Congress a chance to pass legislation that could help cure its budget woes.
But David Van Allen, a postal service spokesman, said even the passage of the Postal Service Protection Act does not change the fact that the agency has too many processing centers for its declining mail volumes. He said restructuring operations is the only real budget solution to reduce cost by $20 billion by 2015.
On Thursday, the Dayton Development Coalition together with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and the city of Dayton sent a letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe requesting a complete copy of the Dayton study.
“We want to be able to see the study, so the community has a chance to review it,” said Sharon Howard, director of marketing and communications with the Dayton Development Coalition. “We want to see the study before any further action happens.”
So far, the postal service has been unwilling to release the report, and the local groups want to see what criteria postal officials used to determine the Dayton facility should close, said Lauren Kulik, a Brown spokeswoman.
Local officials are urging the postal service to reconsider its decision to consolidate the Dayton’s facility’s operations into one in Columbus because of the “adverse” effect it will have on the region’s economy.
“The Dayton region is home to the state’s largest single site employer (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) as well as many other businesses,” according to a letter sent by the city of Dayton to the postmaster general. “As we continue to work to encourage growth and development, lackluster mail service could set back or discourage business in our region.”
Dayton officials have declared their support for the Postal Service Protection Act that was introduced by Brown and seeks to preserve Saturday mail delivery and restrict the closure of rural and urban post offices and protect mail processing facilities.
Brown said his legislation would eliminate the postal service’s legal requirement to pre-fund 75 years worth of future retiree health benefits in just 10 years, which would alleviate a major financial burden.
Sally Davidow, spokeswoman with the American Postal Workers Union, that represents more than 250,000 employees, said this funding stipulation, passed by Congress in 2006, is the real source of the agency’s financial woes. It costs the agency $5.5 billion annually to pay for the retiree liability.
“If you subtract that $5.5 billion obligation, the postal service continued to enjoy modest surpluses in the four years after the law was enacted,” she said. “This whole financial crisis is a manufactured crisis by Congress, and Congress can fix it.”
Davidow said also the service’s plan to close 223 postal facilities across the country seems impossible without violating the terms for union members’ collective bargaining agreement, which prohibits layoffs or relocations to positions more than 50 miles away. The Columbus and Cincinnati facilities are both more than 50 miles away.
But Van Allen, postal service spokesman, said the agency lost $3.3 billion in the last fiscal quarter alone, and without making any changes, it would lose $18 billion by year’s end.
“We are in dire financial straits,” he said.
He said the postal service hopes the retiree funding requirement is changed, but even removing that financial burden will not solve the problem. He said the agency’s financial troubles are rooted in first-class mail volumes dropping by 25 percent in the last several years.
Van Allen said the postal service hopes to save $2.6 billion per year through mail-processing consolidations, and it is looking at billions in savings by closing rural post offices that are underutilized.
He said the service is also looking to end Saturday delivery, which could also several billion of dollars.
As for the request for the Dayton study, Van Allen said officials are welcome to submit a formal public records request, and the agency will determine if it can release the information.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-0749 or cfrolik@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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