A couple of weeks ago, New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote a piece entitled "Playing Post Office," in which see played "Let's fix the Postal Servce." Needless to say, she didn't know what she was talking about. But her piece got John Flattery, president of Central MA Area Local APWU motivated to write a well-informed and lucid editorial about … Read More
NY Times take a look at the Bronx GPO before it’s sold
The historic Bronx General Post Office will soon be sold. An appeal to the USPS failed, as did an appeal to the Postal Regulatory Commission. There's not much left to stand in the way of the sale except for dealing with historic preservation regulations. The New York Times has a piece on the post office, the murals, and the inevitable … Read More
Downtown Albany, GA post office closing soon; city official says USPS response is “absurd and ridiculous”
The Postal Service wants to close the post office in Albany, Georgia, and the city is getting very frustrated dealing with postal officials trying to work out an alternative. The Postal Service rents space for the post office in a 100-year-old building that's a landmark in Albany, and city officials have found a local entrepreneur who wants to operate … Read More
Postal official acknowledges “national initiative” to close thousands of post offices
According to Title 39, when the Postal Service wants to implement a plan that "will generally affect service on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis," it must request an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Postal Service cancelled its plan to close 3,700 post offices after a December 2011 advisory opinion — and a lot of public … Read More
Town pitches in to give historic post office landscaping project
The cash-strapped Postal Service may not have the money to take care of its properties, so the town of Lewes, Delaware, is helping out. A group of citizens is pitching in with time, money, and know-how on a landscaping project for their 100-year-old post office. “I go to the post office every day. The building is right in the center … Read More
Berkeley scholar on radio to discuss sale of post offices
Gray Brechin, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and founder of the Living New Deal Project, as on KALW radio to discuss the significance of post office and historic postal buildings like the Berkeley post office, which is about to be sold. More than 600 buildings have been targeted for sale. Brechin has plenty to say about the role … Read More
Glendale City Council fights sale of historic post office
The City Council of Glendale, California, voted unanimously for a resolution protecting the city's historic post office from sale. ilwoman Laura Friedman acknowledged it might not to any good. "It's a shame what's going on with the U.S. Postal Service," said Friedman. "I doubt this resolution is going to carry much weight with anybody, but I think it's important for … Read More
POStPlan could mean the end of Horatio, SC
Under POStPlan, the post office in Horatio, South Carolina, is supposed to have its hours cut to two a day. That could put Lenoir's general store, where the post office is located, out of business, and that might mean the end of Lenoir. It's a small town, and Lenoir's depends on area residents to come in to get their mail … Read More
Fiasco in Freistatt: How the Post Office Became a Cluster Box
BY MARK JAMISON The Postal Service didn’t think the folks in Freistatt, Missouri, should have a post office, so they closed it. The Postal Service didn’t think the folks in Freistatt, Missouri, should get rural carrier delivery like their neighbors, so they tricked the town into accepting cluster boxes. Now the Postal Service doesn’t think the folks in Freistatt, Missouri, … Read More
Mystery blockade of private truck at Portland mail facility
A mystery vehicle suddenly blocked a private truck attempting to transport mail at the Mt. Hood Distribution Center (US Postal Service) at 9am this morning. A ten-foot banner reading “Stop the Privatization of the People’s Postal Service” covered one side of the silver station wagon, tying the action to a blockade of the same private truck last month. ”Postal truckers … Read More
Did Netflix and the USPS have a falling out?
Netflix is planning to close one of its distribution centers in Connecticut, and it’s blaming the Postal Service. A Netflix spokesman had this to say: "Netflix has closed the Bloomfield DVD distribution center due mainly to United States Postal Service transportation and service changes, along with increased internal production efficiencies, resulting [in] a small number of jobs lost." That announcement … Read More
Postal Service looks to close post office in Sun Valley, NV
The Postal Service has initiated a discontinuance process to close the Sun Valley branch post office, just north of Reno. According to the USPS facilities list, the Postal Service constructed the Sun Valley post office in 1986, so it owns the building and there’s no rent to pay, just maintenance and utilities. The employees (there may be just one) will … Read More
What it’s all about: The war on workers goes to the post office
BY MARK JAMISON What if the postal crisis we’ve read about over the last five years isn’t really about saving the Postal Service after all? What if the story really isn’t about an archaic Federal agency struggling to find a business plan in the face of technological change? Could the real story be much simpler than that? Maybe the real … Read More
Sen. Sanders: Congress Must Not Hobble Postal Service Rebound
Press release from Senator Bernie Sanders: With revenue rebounding, the U.S. Postal Service would have posted a profit for the past three months without an unprecedented requirement that it sink $5.5 billion a year into future retiree health care, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today. The latest quarterly report on Postal Service finances showed a $740 million loss, but all … Read More
The Nation: Protesters Live in Tent City to Oppose Post Office Closure
Allison Kilkenny has a very good piece in The Nation right now about the protest on the steps of the Berkeley post office that's now entering its third week. It starts like this: "For two weeks, protesters have been living in a tent city outside a post office in Berkeley, California. The participants are staging the sleep-in to save the … Read More
When good news is bad news: The Postal Service spins its Q3 financial report
One might think that a good financial report would be welcome news to postal management, but good news isn’t good when you’re trying to justify downsizing, service cuts, and more dismantling. The third quarter financial report came out last week, and it looks like the Postal Service is having a decent year. Maybe the worst is over. Maybe the upturn … Read More