Will Post Office Closures Cause Workers to Go Postal?
Around the country today, postal workers are learning whether their shops are on the chopping block—more than half of the nation's 487 mail processing facilities will be shut down when (if?) a congressionally imposed moratorium expires in May.
Regular readers will remember that the postal cutbacks process has been—gasp!—highly politicized. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) pointed an accusing finger at those newfangled electronic mails, while the union prefers to blame Congress.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that people don't like to lose their jobs:
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service plans to step up patrols at hundreds of mail processing facilities in the coming days in anticipation of potentially adverse reactions by workers as they learn whether their facility is slated to close.
Because nothing drives people to violence like losing their jobs "mostly through attrition," as the closure plan specifies.
At a Springfield, Missouri, processing center slated for closure people are bummed. They thought they were safe because mail processing is "one job they can't send to china." Oops.
For customers, he implications sound pretty dire:
So how does this affect you? You'll still be able to mail materials at the center in Springfield, but they won't be sorted there.
So hypothetically you could send a letter to your next door neighbor and instead of arriving the next day it may take an extra two or three days to get to there.
Our God-given right to send subsidized next-day mail to our door neighbors is under attack. Fight back, postal workers! Fight back!
