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The U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to reduce operations at two Connecticut mail processing plants this summer. That’s earlier than anyone expected, and could affect more than a thousand workers.
There’s been talk for a long time about closing or cutting back operations at postal facilities in Wallingford and Stamford. But last year, USPS officials assured workers – and CT’s Congressional delegation - that nothing would happen before 2014.
Bob Johnson, Connecticut area local president for the American Postal Workers Union, says news that things will start shutting down this summer came as a surprise.
"To do it in this manner is nothing more than I think a slap to the people in Connecticut and especially to our congressional delegation that just sent the Postmaster General a letter requesting that he not make any actions."
Drivers, sorters, clerks and maintenance employees could be reassigned to other locations or other jobs, but details are still unclear. Johnson says, between the debate over cutting mail delivery to five days and now this, workers are worried.
"Are we going to have five day delivery in August? Are they going to take these operations out? Its very difficult to get up every day and feel like is the sky is falling or not?"
"The reason for this acceleration is that the postal service is facing dire financial conditions."
Postal service spokesperson Christine Dugas says the USPS is losing about $25 million a day, and consolidating operations will yield savings.
"In Wallingford, we would save a little over 23 ½ million dollars per year and in Stamford we would save a little over 15 ½ million dollars per year."
Back in 2001, not long after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Towers, the Wallingford plant was the focus of national attention after trace amounts of anthrax were found on mail sorting equipment. Again Bob Johnson.
"Those employees continued to work in that facility even when there was knowledge of anthrax spores that were possibly there."
He says Congress should have time to consider ways to deal with the fiscal crisis facing the USPS, before workers’ lives are affected.
