Stop the Closure of Our Post Office Distribution Plant!

Save Salems Mail !

Save Jobs! Save Service!

Wednesday, April 17th**, Noon1 pm Salem Main Post Office 1050 25th St. SE (n. of Mission)
On July 1st the Postmaster General began a massive wave of distribution plant and community post office closures and cuts. These attacks on our beloved postal service are not necessary. The postal service is not broke. Congress created the financial crisis. The PMG should back off and let Congress or the President fix the finances. Current plans to close half the distribution plants and thousands of post offices, eliminate six-day and door -to-door delivery, and abolish 200,000 jobs will send the public postal service into a death spiral.

Rally, March, and Sit-in*

Salems Main Post Office Distribution Plant is scheduled for closure by June, 2013.
These closures are causing huge disruptions to mail service, eliminating the overnight first class delivery standard, delaying delivery two or three days, and forcing hundreds of thousands of postal patrons to travel many miles to the nearest post office. Think about the disabled who depend on timely delivery of prescription drugs, the farmer who depends on delivery of perishable products, the elderly who depend on a Social Security check, the homeowner who depends on timely delivery of a mortgage payment, the consumer who depends on delivery of a credit card payment, the business that depends on timely delivery of advertising, the medical facility that depends on lab samples through the mail, the community newspaper that depends on timely delivery of the news. The Postal Service is our national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution. The operations of the USPS are funded solely by postage and no tax dollars. The Postal Service serves over 150 million households and businesses six days a week and provides equal universal mail services for all the people at reasonable uniform rates. Good postal jobs help build strong communities.

Not the internet, not labor costs, not private competition, not the recession, Congress is killing the postal service.
To justify these cutbacks, Congress has created a phony financial crisis. Since 2006 the USPS has been forced to spend nearly 10% of its budget prefunding retiree health benefits 75 years in advance. No other U.S. agency or private business faces such a crushing financial burden. Not only would the postal service have been profitable without the mandate, the USPS has also over paid tens of billions into two pension funds. The postal service is not broke, but the agenda of the 1% and their friends in Congress is to cripple the USPS, to soften it up for union busting and privatization. The USPS is a $63 billion annual business with over $100 billion surplus in its pension and retiree health benefit funds, over 30,000 post offices and 200,000 vehicles. Were facing a huge transfer of public wealth to Wall Street investors.
for more info:

Communities & Postal Workers United, 503-752-5112 www.cpwunited.com, www.savethepostoffice.com

* for those willing to risk arrest, a separate sit-in action will demonstrate our determination to stop this unnecessary, unfair and unwise post office closure .

** April 17th is the anniversary of the death of Benjamin

Franklin, the first Postmaster General, who would be rolling in this grave if he knew what the current Postmaster General is doing to dismantle the Postal Service.