Womack: USPS plan outside ‘boundary of reason’

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, is saying a proposal by the U.S. Postal Service to consolidate more than 250 mail processing centers nationwide is an “unacceptable course of action.”

Womack, a freshman Representative, sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. And as a member of the Financial Services and General Government committee, Womack is part of the committee that has oversight of the U.S. Postal Service.

The USPS on Thursday (Sept. 15) announced a national plan that includes the study of about 250 processing facilities for possible consolidation or closure, reducing mail processing equipment by as much as 50%, decreasing the nationwide transportation network, cutting up to 35,000 jobs, and revising service standards for first-class mail and periodicals.

The new study has also halted the transfer of mail processing from Fort Smith to Fayetteville. The Labor Day weekend plans to begin shifting sorting machines from Fort Smith to Little Rock has been put on hold pending the outcome of the new national plan. The USPS announced April 18 it would move mail processing from Fort Smith to Fayetteville.

Thomas Henry, a former Postal Service union official, said the plan is essentially a “done deal” and he expects mail from Fort Smith to be processed in Little Rock by March 2012. Henry also said moving Fayetteville and Fort Smith facilities to Little Rock would cut more than 200 jobs in the two areas.

“The latest news from USPS is very disturbing and has crossed the boundary of reason.  This is not a study. It is a “trial balloon” and we don’t need to waste resources on studying an unacceptable course of action,” Womack said in a statement.

Womack continued: “The USPS not only has a funding problem; it has a management problem. And the answer is not to continue to seek relief at the expense of workers, patrons, and service. Enough already.”