Talbot Today

Please read this important material and follow up with the attached letter to Consumer Affairs in Baltimore.

AMP Study – Easton, Maryland

American Postal Workers Union – Salisbury Area Local #4321

Opposition to Consolidation of Operations to Baltimore

First of all, it is important for everyone to understand who we are at the Easton Mail Processing Facility, and what we do. We are a 24/7 operation. Even when window services are not available, even when there are no carriers on the street, someone is in this building taking care of your mail. Trucks flow in and out of our facility on scheduled trips, delivering mail to us, and picking up mail that is ready for dispatch. Easton has always processed mail for the 216 offices, and for several years has processed for the 218 offices as well. We currently serve close to 100 Post Offices on the Eastern Shore. We process and dispatch mail to offices as far as Galena to the north and Crisfield to the south as well as the two offices on Smith Island — Ewell and Rhodes Point. The Easton Plant is centrally located in our service area. Our plant has two main functions. The first being the cancellation of all the mail that has been collected that day from collection boxes, carriers, Post Offices and business mailers. This process known as Out Going starts at approximately 3 PM and goes to approximately 9:30 PM. It is during this time that our local mail is removed from the mail stream, approximately 13 million letters in 2009. Local mail means mail that is staying on the shore. All other mail is processed and dispatched to other plants for distribution around the country. The plant then shifts gears to the Incoming mode. This starts at approximately 10 PM when mail starts arriving from other plants around the country. This mail, as well as our local mail, is then sorted to all of our local Post Offices. The mail goes through several sortations. It can be Carrier Routed, which means that is sorted to each carrier in each office or it can be Delivery Point Sequenced. This means that the mail is sorted in the exact order that the carrier does their route. This level of sortation is the most cost effective for the Post Office. We currently do this for 30 of our local Post Offices. We also receive many of our local daily newspapers in time to meet our 6 AM dispatch. Many of our local farmers rely on us to notify them day or night upon the arrival of their live shipments of animals. They often come to the plant immediately to retrieve their shipments. The Easton Plant has had no problem collecting, processing and getting our local mail to its destination the next day. The Postal Service has thought highly enough of our operation that they invested many thousands (and possibly several millions) of dollars into a new HVAC system for our plant and just last year invested in extensive roof repairs, high efficiency lighting and upgraded security measures.

We are vehemently opposed to the proposed consolidation of mail processing duties that is currently being considered. Our AMP (Area Mail Processing) study officially began on March 16, 2010. The Postal Service is proposing that moving the mail processing duties to Baltimore would be a cost savings for them, and would improve operational efficiency and service for the shore.

In 2005 the Postal Service tried to consolidate our Flat Sorting operation with
Baltimore’s and found it to be unsuccessful. A Flat is a large piece of mail such as a magazine or manila envelope. The Easton Plant was able to process this Flat mail and meet our overnight standard. When Baltimore took over this operation it was 3-5 days getting the Flat mail back to the Shore. During this experiment two fully functional Flat Sorting machines were disassembled and removed from our plant. When it was determined that this consolidation of Flat Sorting operations was not going to work, we received a Flat Sorting machine that was in need of a complete overhaul to get it back to its optimum processing capabilities. This is just one of several examples of consolidation to improve operational efficiency and service.

We contend that if this consolidation does take place it will result in a delay of service to our customers on the shore, a change of collection time for Out Going mail, additional customer service problems as well as job loss and economic impact for all of the shore communities.

Currently mail can be dropped off until 5 PM in Crisfield and Ocean City MD. This mail arrives at the Easton Plant at approximately 8:30 PM. This arrival time varies due to Ocean City and Route 50 traffic conditions during the Spring, Summer and Fall months. We then process this mail by the 9:30 PM cut off time for the cancellation of Out Going mail. This cut off time is critical for the mail that has to meet transportation deadlines for distribution around the country. The local mail, as mentioned earlier will stay at the plant and be processed for delivery the next day. The other Out Going mail will be dispatched in time to meet all transportation deadlines. If that mail is sent to Baltimore it will arrive at approximately 10 PM. Taking into account the time it takes to unload the mail and transport it to the appropriate floor to be processed, our Out Going mail will be well beyond the standard 9:30 PM cut off time for cancellation. This will result in a delay of our mail returning to the shore and our mail that is destined for delivery points around the country. Please bear in mind that Baltimore also processes all the mail from around the city and surrounding metropolitan area.

The Postal Service will probably consider changing the collection time at our local Post Office and collection boxes to try and meet this 9:30 PM cancellation standard. This means that our mail could be leaving the shore anywhere between mid morning and early afternoon. If a customer dropped mail in a collection box or at their local Post Office after this collection time, it will sit until the next day’s collection and dispatch. If you give your mail to your carrier, it could be on the next days dispatch because of the time that they return to their office after their route. The earlier collection time will also be a burden to our many business and bulk mailers. With the talk of a 5 Day Delivery week (which we also oppose) this delay of our mail will only increase. This change of collection time will result in a delay of our mail on the shore.
.

All of our local Post Offices and Bulk and Business mailers rely on the Easton Plant to supply them with equipment and mailing labels that they use on a daily basis for their operation. These equipment requests would now go through the Baltimore Plant which also handles the request for their large area of service. Our local Post Offices and mailers would find this challenging at best. The Easton Plant also serves as a recovery point for the many items that are found in the collection mail on the shore. These items include wallets, keys, money, bank deposits, drivers licenses, stamps etc. We try very hard to reunite these items with their owner. These items would now go to Baltimore and be mixed with their many found items. The chance of recovering a lost item would be challenging at best. These are just two of the many customer service functions that the Easton Plant provides that would be lost to the community.

The traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is at a peak between April and October with Maryland and Delaware beach traffic, add this to the numerous daily commuters and you are sure to experience delays. Maintenance and repair work on the bridge often require frequent lane closures. Weather conditions such as High Wind Warnings restrict truck traffic on the bridge and you have the unfortunate traffic accident. All of these traffic delays will further delay the mail service for our customers. Current reports show that 30% of our postal and contract deliveries that use the Chesapeake Bay Bridge are late arriving due to bridge conditions. This situation does not improve operational efficiency and service.

The economic impact to the shore will surely be felt. The loss of 131 postal employees and numerous contract employees will have an affect on many of our local communities on the shore. These employees and contractors pay rent and mortgages, bank, support local businesses, churches and charities, volunteer for local fire departments, pay local and state taxes and vote. The Easton Plant also supports many local businesses and contractors. The Postal Service will say that these employees will be offered a job elsewhere– but they fail to say it may be at some other office or plant within a 500 mile radius of Easton. Anybody who accepts this offer would have to put their house up for sale in this down real estate market suffering further losses. The Postal Service would also lose by selling their building that they spent so heavily on, in the down commercial real estate market.

The Area Mail Processing study uses the phrase that its purpose is to improve operational efficiency and service and this will not happen. What will happen is delayed mail service for the shore, inconvenient mail collection times for our customers and businesses, and increased customer service problems. They also use the phrase that it puts the right people in the right place with the right resources. I believe that we have the right people and are in the right place and already have the right resources to best serve our customers on the shore.

The study also mentions its effort to reduce cost. I believe that this can be accomplished by providing us with more resources to more efficiently serve our customers on the shore. If they could provide us with one or two more mail processing machines then we could Delivery Point Sequence many of the remaining towns. This would be their cost savings. Our local union, the American Postal Workers Union, has also offered to work with the Postal Service to help in reducing labor cost.

The study states that if this consolidation seems feasible to the Postal Service they will schedule one public meeting to get input from the community. With the large geographical area that makes up the Eastern Shore (a little over 1/3 of the entire state of Maryland) and the large number of people that this plan would affect, I would think that one held in each of the towns of Chestertown, Easton, Salisbury and Ocean City areas would be required to get true public input on this plan.

The residents and businesses of the Eastern Shore depend on us for efficient mail service. The elderly, disabled and poor that lack computer access depend on us for communication with their friends, relatives, churches and doctors. Many also receive their medications through the mail. Our retired residents depend on us for timely delivery of their Social Security, retirement and Social Services checks. The future population growth that is predicted for the shore will need to depend on us.

We are asking for your help in keeping our mail processing a “Shore Thing “.

Governor O’Malley
http://www.gov.state.md.us/mail/

Sen. Mikulski
Linda_Prochaska@mikulski.senate.gov
(underscore between Linda and Prochaska)

Sen. Cardin
lee_whaley@cardin.senate.gov
(underscore again between lee and whaley)

Rep. Kratovil
http://kratovil.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=60&sectiontree=3,60

Rep. Haddaway
Jeannie.Haddaway@house.state.md.us

Rep. Eckardt
adelaide.eckardt@house.state.md.us

Sen. Colbourn
richard.colburn@senate.state.md.us

Al Silverstein, Talbot County Chamber
info@talbotchamber.com

Date: _______________________

To: Consumer Affairs Manager
900 E. Fayette Street
Baltimore, MD 21233-9998

From: ___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________
Re: Moving Operations from Easton to Baltimore Maryland
Area Mail Processing Study

Dear Consumer Affairs Manager:

As a resident of the Eastern Shore I do not want my mail to go to the Baltimore plant or any other plant to be processed, other that the Eastern Shore Mail Processing Plant. Any mail that I mail from the Eastern Shore going to a town on the Eastern Shore should not leave the shore. Not only will it cost more money to transport the mail back and forth across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge but they will be delaying the mail for the Eastern Shore people every time the beach traffic holds up their trucks, or if the wind blows too hard and there are wind restrictions on the bridge or if construction work on the bridge closes certain lanes. I do not think that Baltimore can meet the overnight delivery standards that are in place for the shore at this time; without making drastic changes to the collection times of our mail. Changing collection times will be detrimental to residents as well as businesses on the shore. The Easton plant is handling the mail just fine and there is no good reason for that to change. If the Easton plant closes, that will mean many layoffs, displacing and possibly firing Postal employees as well as contract drivers from jobs and therefore affecting the economy of the Eastern Shore. They will be uprooting and destroying families on the Eastern Shore. Many of these employees will be forced to move out of their homes and possibly out of the state of Maryland, in order to find other jobs and support their families. The people at the Easton plant really care about the people on the shore and do everything in their power to get their mail to them on time. The Eastern Shore covers a vast land area and the elderly, disabled and poor residents that lack computer access depend on the mail service to communicate with friends, relatives, churches, and doctors. Many receive medicine in the mail as well as their Social Security and retirement checks through the mail.

The Postal Service has said that they are trying to save money, but in closing the Easton plant they will be neglecting their customers.
It is of utmost importance that the mail processing services for the Eastern Shore remain on the Eastern Shore where the residents can rely on a “Shore Thing”.

Sincerely,

____________________________

Posted on June 1st, 2010 by Tilghman Guy
Filed under: General