PHOTO BY SCOTT REEDER
U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski held a public forum July 28 in Springfield to discuss the challenges facing the U.S. Postal Service.
Local mail service is in crisis, and it will likely get worse if the federal government follows through with a proposal to move a Springfield letter distribution center to St. Louis, contended a group that gathered Monday in a public forum at Lincoln Land Community College.
The meeting, led by U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, explored why only 59% of local mail is delivered on time. She noted that just seven years ago, 93% was being delivered promptly.
“The Postal Service is a lifeline in rural communities, and lagging delivery rates have meant delayed prescriptions, late bills, missed paychecks and much more,” she said. “It’s unacceptable and the administration should do better.”
Union, business and political leaders who attended the forum expressed dismay at how much the postal service has deteriorated.
State Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, said her neighborhood on the city’s east side recently went a week without any mail delivery.
Union officials attending the meeting said the U.S. Postal Service is having trouble hiring and retaining employees because of low pay, a cumbersome hiring process and challenging working conditions.
Chad Ludwig, president of Branch 80 of the National Association of Letter Carriers said, “Staffing is the No. 1 problem. We can’t get over the hump. As soon as people get in the door, they get beat to death with 11 1/2-hour days, six or seven days in a row.”
Having too few employees results in some routes not having deliveries and other employees being forced to work overtime and on Sundays to handle the delivery of Amazon packages, union officials said.
For several years, the USPS has been planning on closing mail distribution centers in mid-size cities such as Springfield and Champaign and moving their functions to larger communities such as Chicago and St. Louis.
“I’m very concerned,” Budzinski said. “I’ve spoken out against that. I mentioned the 59% on-time delivery rate. We’ve introduced legislation with my Republican colleague (U.S. Rep. Jack) Bergman, (R-Michigan) to say that until we can get our on-time mail back up to the 90% threshold, we’re asking that none of the distribution centers be closed because we’ve seen that as closures are happening, the on-time mail delivery rate continues to drop.”
Budzinski added that it appears that the postal service has given up on closing the Champaign distribution center but the future of the Springfield facility remains uncertain.
Johnny Bishop, president of the American Postal Workers in Springfield, said he is hopeful that the postal service’s investment in new package processing equipment in Springfield indicates that they don’t plan to close the facility.
This year, Budzinski introduced the bipartisan Protect Postal Performance Act, which would prevent the postal service from downsizing facilities in underserved areas, provide more oversight over modifications to delivery schedules and increase public transparency on proposed changes. She also led 159 members of Congress in sending a letter to President Donald Trump expressing concern over his proposal to fire the USPS Board of Governors and merge the postal service into the Department of Commerce.
Budzinski said she is fearful that the administration wants to privatize the postal service.
“If mail becomes that unreliable, businesses and consumers are going to have to go to other places to get on-time delivery,” she said. “And if they move to FedEx, if they move to UPS, that in and of itself is kind of a slower attrition and a movement toward privatization because people have to make different decisions.”