Unpopular change to Post Office stopped – for a while

The U.S. Postal Service is temporarily freezing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan to drastically change mail-delivery processes, notifying Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) that USPS won’t consolidate distribution centers at some 60 locations before next year.

Seemingly, his statement answered a letter from Peters and 25 other Senators objecting to “Delivering for America,” a nationwide restructuring of the postal processing and delivery network.

DeJoy wrote, “In response to the concern you and your colleagues have expressed, I will commit to pause any implementation of these moves at least until after Jan. 1, 2025. Even then, we will not advance these efforts without advising you of our plans to do so, and then only at a moderated pace of implementation.”

Critics from unions and management, plus customer advocates and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have said the cost-cutting “modernization’ proposal was illogical since it would slow delivery times and perhaps affect not just timely arrival of medicine and other important items, but mail-in ballots.

As USPS outlined in dozens of public hearings, the plan would have transferred mail processing to distant facilities. DeJoy had previously announced moving work from Peoria and Champaign to suburban Chicago, Springfield to St. Louis, and Rockford and the Quad Cities to Des Moines.

“It’s good news [because] the plan’s not going to work,” commented Bud Toft, President of the Heart of Illinois Local 854 of the American Postal Workers Union. “It would consolidate everything and make everything take longer. Congress is right to be fed up with it.”

In a prepared statement issued by U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood (R-16th) and Eric Sorensen (D-17th), they said, “The Peoria Processing and Distribution Center provides essential services for residents in the communities we serve, and any action that would jeopardize local jobs or diminish customer service is unacceptable. We are pleased that the USPS has committed to pausing any potential changes through 2024, but we will continue to work to protect Peoria and downstate Illinois jobs and ensure smooth operation of mail services in Peoria and Central Illinois.” 

Sorensen and LaHood in February criticized the plan, as have Illinois’ U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and Illinois’ U.S. Reps. Mary Miller (R-15th) and Democratic Reps. Nikki Budzinski (13th), Sean Casten (6th), Bill Foster (11th) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (8th).

It’s no wonder it provoked a backlash. For centuries, the U.S. Post Office has delivered not just mail but a connection between Americans. Its workers now go door-to-door to 41,704 ZIP Codes in the nation six days a week, almost uniquely unifying the country. An essential service, it’s popular – 91% of Americans have a favorable view of the agency, according to Pew.

Elected 10 years ago, the 65-year-old Peters thanked DeJoy but said he’s not satisfied with the half-measure.

“I appreciate Postmaster General DeJoy’s efforts to work with me on this issue,” Peters said. “However, I urge the Postal Service to pause and reverse local transportation changes in addition to facility changes until we have more information about their effects. I will continue to push for a comprehensive study by the Postal Regulatory Commission to ensure any changes implemented do not impact mail delivery. It’s absolutely critical that we understand the full scope of these changes, as well as their impact on service and communities, before moving forward.”

DeJoy is a major Republican campaign contributor installed as head of USPS by President Trump in 2020.  A former CEO of XPO Delivery, a private, non-union package service that competes with the Postal Service, DeJoy reportedly wants to have the Postal Service stress package delivery and de-emphasize its top money-maker, first-class letters and cards.

Toft said the 10-year, $40 billion scheme may have a motive besides efficiency.

“DeJoy’s basically trying to privatize the Postal Service,” he said. “He wants to sway public opinion.

“[Then] it would get rid of jobs and workers, wouldn’t recognize unions and pay minimum wage,” Toft continued. “Meanwhile, he’d put ‘cluster boxes’ in neighborhoods to make you go get your own mail. People would have to be their own letter carriers.

“He’s got to destroy it to make people mad.”

Indeed, the plan does seem to fit a pattern.

At an appearance at the University of Toronto in 2011, political activist and author Noam Chomsky summarized the typical process for taking public services and making them private.

“There is a standard technique of privatization,” Chomsky said. “Namely, defund what you want to privatize, like when [U.K. Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher wanted to defund the railroads. First thing to do is defund them, then they don't work and people get angry and they want a change. You say ‘Okay, privatize them’.”

Answering the question “Why now?” – after months of criticism – is just speculation. It could be political or transactional.

Possibly, enough opposition finally accumulated to force DeJoy to reconsider. In April, Peters, Chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, held a hearing that blasted the plan. Weeks later, DeJoy on May 7 announced that work in Iron Mountain, Mich. (Peters’ state) would move 116 miles south to Green Bay, and Peters spoke to DeJoy the next day. The letter of opposition to DeJoy from 26 senators came May 9.

Or it could be DeJoy’s way of letting Peters take credit for something that was going to happen anyway after Peters was behind bipartisan postal reforms in 2022 that benefited USPS by saving the service about $49 billion over the next decade.

Regardless, Toft said, “Congress is going to have to make it stop. Permanently.”

 

Behind the headlines

The partial success of the grassroots mission to eliminate massive restructuring of the U.S. Postal Service flew under the radar for days.

Scouring sources for updates on the status of the controversial plan on May 14, one post was found on the web site of Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). It claimed to have gotten Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to back off the plan – which had already started implementing changes to Peoria, Milan (in the Quad Cities) and other Illinois cities.

However, there was no USPS confirmation, so Congressional aides were contacted that morning about 10:30. That afternoon, the pause was verified by Congressman Eric Sorensen’s office in Washington, D.C.

It took about 24 hours for Rep. Darin LaHood to approve wording for a joint statement with Sorensen.

Another day later, the story was out – at least a rewrite of Peters’ original post.

This is partly “the rest of the story.”