Postal Service changes could lead to local job losses

CEDAR RAPIDS - Facing the possibility the Cedar Rapids mail processing and distribution center might be downsized or closed as early as February, outgoing mail clerk Dan Skemp is taking a day-by-day outlook.

“Honestly, it would be pure speculation to say what is going to happen one way or another,” Skemp said.

The United States Postal Service announced Thursday it will conduct feasibility studies to determine whether the operations of mail centers in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo should be consolidated with centers in Milan, Ill, and Des Moines, respectively.

“We have one of the best mail processing facilities in the entire (Midwest region), so we need to keep doing what we're doing here in Cedar Rapids and hope they make the right decision,” said Skemp, a North Liberty resident and president of the American Postal Workers Union Rapid Area Local 166.

Faced with declining mail volume and revenue, the USPS is considering closing or consolidating as many as 250 processing facilities and shedding 35,000 jobs nationally. Since 2006, it has closed 186 facilities, removed more than 1,500 pieces of mail processing equipment, eliminated 110,000 jobs through attrition and reduced costs by $12 billion.

“We are forced to face a new reality today,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said.

There is a new reality, but the bigger question is whether the nation values its mail delivery system, said Sen. Tom Harkin. “If it is a service, then we have to be willing to understand that sometimes services don't always break even. This is not FedEx. This is not UPS. It is a postal service, and in many ways, it's doing things that a private entity would never do because there is no money in it.”

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee that has legislative authority over the USPS, has asked for an analysis of job loss.

“This action by the U.S. Postal Service could mean hundreds of Iowans will soon be unemployed,” Braley said, promising to “fight this bad decision.”

In Cedar Rapids, about 150 clerks and mail handlers, 40 maintenance workers and 10 to 20 management personnel could be affected, Skemp said. Union contracts with USPS spell out the layoff procedures, he said, including “bumping” rights. About 100 jobs are involved in Waterloo.

Sen. Chuck Grassley acknowledged changes must be made because of the “very bad financial situation” at USPS, but wondered about the impact on Iowa communities is service is downgraded.

“Communities will be given a chance to weigh in and should take the opportunity to spell out local concerns and points of view,” Grassley said.

Gov. Terry Branstad voiced his concerns, suggesting USPS is “kind of panicking and doing things that are not just well thought out.”

Given that the Sioux City mail center is already targeted for closure and facilities in Carroll and Creston will be studied for possible closure, Branstad said he feels as though Iowa is being punished.

“What's that going to do to mail service in this state?” said Branstad, who along with his wife owns several post offices. “I don't think they've got a very thoughtful plan in place.

Tom Hagarty, a Cedar Falls City Council member and a retired Waterloo Post Office customer service counter supervisor, said USPS studies are cyclical. USPS may be showing a “gloom and doom situation” as part of the posturing that goes along with contract talks, he said.

Rod Boshart of the SourceMedia Group News Des Moines bureau and the Waterloo Courier contributed to this post