Mail distribution plans decried

A local American Postal Workers Union president said the closing of processing and distribution facilities such as the one in Shrewsbury will eventually destroy the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.

“If they reduce the service standard, I think in five years there will be no more post office,” said John Flattery, president of the American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO Local 4553.

Mr. Flattery was one of several postal worker delegates who met yesterday with representatives of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and eight other congressional members in the senator’s Boston office to stress the importance to preserving the U.S. Postal Service as it is now.

Mr. Flattery said he and members from his camp said the closing of processing facilities will result in mail delays and lower delivery standards.

On Dec. 20, postal workers’ representatives in the Greater Boston District received word that a USPS study is recommending that the Central Massachusetts Processing and Distribution facility in Shrewsbury be closed and its operations moved to facilities in Boston and North Reading. In Shrewsbury alone, Mr. Flattery said, more than 450 workers will be affected, with 371 moving to Boston and 86 of them out of a job.

“We don’t want to see any of these processing and distribution facilities close. We don’t think there’s a need for it. And again, the only way they can close these facilities is to relax the service standards,” Mr. Flattery said. “Right now, first-class mail has to be delivered in one to three days. So that’s why all these plants are where they’re at so we can meet those service standards.

“They’re asking for relief to changing that from one to three days to two to five days. If the Senate and the Congress don’t pass legislation to reduce our standards, then they can’t really go through with these closings.”

Mr. Flattery said he many take the postal service for granted and don’t realize what a tremendous piece it is of the nation’s fabric.

“There still a ton of people out there that depend on the mail, whether it’s elderly people for prescriptions. There is so much prescription medications that goes through that plant in Shrewsbury,” Mr. Flattery said. “Now, these people will have to wait three, five days, maybe it will be there, maybe not. When the postal service is gone, how does it get there? Now the government is going have to contract with a private contractor. You think they’re going to get a better deal than they get now?”

And in addition to rain, sleet and snow, the U.S. Postal Service is there during natural disasters and, if need be, biological attack, Mr. Flattery said.

“During Hurricane Katrina, they relied on the postal service because we had a transportation network in place big enough to handle and move everything to the site,” Mr. Flattery said. “We played a huge part in that. If there is a biological attack, we’re the people who will deliver the antidotes to the cities that are attacked. That’s already in place. It’s little things like that I don’t think people understand or take for granted. Al that will be gone.”

He said nobody realizes the amount of mail that Federal Express and UPS drop off at the U.S. Postal Service because they can’t physically deliver it.

“Right now, no matter where you are in the country, we deliver your mail,” he said. “So now you will have people in rural areas that maybe they can get mail, maybe they can’t. They will be paying an arm and a leg. We still provide such a valuable commodity, and people take it for granted. Nah, I don’t need it but they really will. We’re the centerpiece of the mailing industry that employs over 8 million people nationwide.”

USPS officials agreed to delay the closing of processing centers and local post offices until May 15. A meeting has been scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 5 in the Richard D. Carney Municipal Office Building, 100 Maple Ave., Shrewsbury, for postal service managers to give an overview of the proposal and its impact and to get input from the public.

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