A Bangor area branch of the American Postal Workers Union will picket in five communities leading up to the U.S. Postal Service’s Feb. 29 meeting to share initial results of a Hampden facility review and collect public feedback.
Members of Bangor Area Local No. 536 voted Sunday to move forward with a series of informational pickets on Feb. 24, union president Robert Perocchi said. Members of Local No. 301, which represents mail handlers, are also invited, and Perocchi anticipates that some of its members will participate.
Workers will visit Orono, Old Town, Brewer, Hampden and Bangor and spend about an hour in each community, he said.
The postal service revealed in November that it was reviewing the Hampden mail processing facility as part of its 10-year plan to invest $40 billion into operations. Last month, the agency told the American Postal Workers Union that the facility will remain open and be modernized, but some mail processing operations will move to the Scarborough facility roughly 130 miles away.
Some of Maine’s postal workers are worried a consolidation of operations at the Hampden mail processing facility could lead to job losses and worse service. In recent weeks, they have rallied support by informing government officials and the public about a potential consolidation.
For example, last week the Hampden Town Council endorsed a resolution to save the Hampden facility and a letter from Perocchi against the consolidation, he said. The resolution requests that the U.S. Congress prohibits the USPS from moving the Hampden facility to Scarborough and “study the feasibility of relocating the Hampden Post Office into the processing and distribution center,” which could save the agency $60,000 in annual lease payments, according to a signed copy.
“The postal service released an initial findings document that left more questions than answers,” said Perocchi, who represents the clark craft. “We’ve reached out at the local and district levels, but we haven’t been able to obtain any more information.”
Picketing will help notify the public about the lack of transparency, Perocchi said. Workers will encourage people to attend the meeting or reach out to their representatives if they cannot be there, he said.
In a Feb. 1 notice announcing the meeting date, the postal service wrote that the purpose of conducting the review and implementing its 10-year plan is to improve delivery services and retail experience.
The agency wrote that when the Hampden facility is modernized, it could become a local processing center, sorting and delivery center or both. Any of those options would result in an updated facility with improvements to employee amenities and the working environment, the USPS wrote, though it did not provide specifics.
Postal workers will begin picketing at 9 a.m. and likely end between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24, though exact locations and times are still being determined, Perocchi said.
He will apply for event permits this week.
