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Twenty-two members of Congress, three of them from Maine, have urged the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider its planned consolidations at facilities across the country, including a shift in some operations from the processing facility in Hampden to Scarborough.
We join them in that call for reconsideration.
Reviewing operations and looking to improve efficiency makes sense, for the Postal Service or any organization. But we continue in the struggle to understand how increasing the distance that some mail deliveries will have to travel, particularly from and then back to northern Maine, will somehow increase efficiency.
So while the Postal Service is trying to frame these consolidations as a process of “modernization,” we can’t help but feel like that is cynical spin to avoid a more likely reality: Jobs in Hampden could be moved or lost, mail from northern Maine would have to travel farther to be processed, delivery times could slow and efficiency for local mail could suffer. As Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has emphasized, the planned consolidation also raised concerns about timelines for voters receiving and returning their absentee ballots.
“A common theme of these announcements is the so-called ‘modernization’ of Processing and Distribution Centers into Local Processing Centers,” the senators and representatives, including U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on April 16. “Taken together, these proposals dismantle parts of the Postal Service’s robust network that helps distribute mail across the country and places outgoing sorting into more distant facilities. The result of this change is that mail will need to travel farther from its origin to its sorting, creating inefficiencies in the system, especially for local mail.”
To be clear, the Postal Service doesn’t agree with these assessments from us or lawmakers.
“While we understand that there is a false narrative being circulated by some that this move will slow mail delivery, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that mail delivery will be negatively impacted by this move,” a regional Postal Service spokesperson told us in an April 11 email. “The vast majority of outgoing mail processed at this facility is destined for locations outside of the area and locally destined mail will still meet the same two day delivery standard that it currently has. Mail traveling from origins outside of Maine will likely move across the network faster, facilitating shorter delivery times for many items.”
If the Postal Service is frustrated with a so-called false narrative, it might want to reflect on its communication throughout this process. The Postal Service has rightfully been criticized for a lack of transparency in recent months. We said in December that an apparent failure to be more upfront about the intent and scope of the operational review was concerning, and the same remains true as the Postal Service tries to spin the “modernization” as a positive thing.
In an April 10 press release from Golden’s office, Scott Adams, the president of the American Postal Workers Union of Maine, called it “offensive” that the Postal Service has tried to present the consolidation as good news.
“The announcement fails to address the public input regarding new delays in mail delivery, the negative impact on the public’s confidence in ballot delivery, and how ‘network modernization’ is a regression from the ability to deliver parcels, medications, bills, and more,” Adams said.
The April 9 announcement from the Postal Service about the planned changes in Maine also tried to project a sunny outlook for the impact on workers, saying that there won’t be career employee layoffs. But that is another way of saying that non-career employees could lose their jobs, along with jobs being relocated. We pressed the Postal Service on this point, and on whether the “modernization” was really more of a downsizing of operations.
“With the changes that are taking place to transform this facility into a state-of-the-art Local Processing Center, local management will determine staffing needs and realign positions as appropriate,” the spokesperson continued in the April 11 email. “Any employee impacts will be handled in accordance with the collective bargaining agreements in place with their respective unions. The Postal Service wouldn’t invest millions of dollars into a facility simply to downsize it. This modernized Local Processing Center will play a key role in ensuring that mail service to our Northern Maine customers equals what they deserve and have come to expect from the Postal Service.”
We remain unconvinced. Financial and operational challenges loom over the Postal Service nationwide, and we recognize that will require action and adjustment. But this planned consolidation, both in substance and the way it has been communicated, clearly needs reconsideration.
