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WAREHAM — Postal Service managers held a meeting Tuesday night on a proposal to move mail processing operations from a Wareham plant to the processing and distribution facility in Providence.
U.S. Rep. William R. Keating, D-Mass., and union officials questioned whether customers will be well served by the change and if the move would actually produce the desired cost savings.
Keating, running for re-election this year in a newly configured district that extends across SouthCoast, told The Standard-Times the Wareham facility also serves communities in his current district.
“Our region, I think, would suffer,” he said.
Keating said customers would have to wait longer to receive their mail and, since there is a no-layoff provision in effect, the employees at the Wareham location would simply drive farther to get to work, which would also be harmful to the environment.
The proposal is part of a broad effort by the U.S. Postal Service to cut costs as the Internet siphons off lucrative first-class mail. Over the last five years, mail volume has declined by more than 43 billion items.
Most of the Wareham operations would move to Providence under the plan, while the Wareham facility would continue to be used as a staging area for deliveries. The facility has 93 employees, and the proposed change would result in a net decrease of about 71 positions, according to Postal Service officials.
The collective bargaining agreements contain a no-layoff provision for union workers who have been employed with the service for at least six years. The affected employees could work at other locations, said Dennis P. Tarmey, a spokesman for the Postal Service.
No closures will take place before May 15, Tarmey said.
Tom O’Brien, national business agent for American Postal Workers Union in Danvers, argued during the meeting that the Postal Service will not achieve the savings it projects as a result of the plan. It has to reassign the workers unless Congress approves a change to the no-layoff provision, and a change is unlikely with the currently divided government, O’Brien said.
The agency would still have the Wareham building even if it shifts most of its operations, and the town’s economy would suffer without the workers patronizing businesses such as coffee shops, O’Brien said.
“This plan is simply not going to work,” he told Postal Service officials during the hour-long meeting, which drew more than 20 people to Town Hall.
Tarmey said afterward that most of the estimated $6.5 million savings would come from reducing overtime. He said moving the operations to Providence would reduce duplication in efforts.
The Postal Service might also offer incentives for retirement, he said.
Anyone interested in commenting on the proposal can submit a written statement. Written comments may be mailed to Manager, Consumer and Industry, USPS Greater Boston District, 25 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA 02205-0098. Comments must be postmarked by Jan. 18.
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