By Connor Adams Sheets
Well over a hundred U.S. Postal Service employees gathered with union leaders in front of the Bayside office of U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) Tuesday afternoon to thank him for supporting a bill that would ease the financial burden on the beleaguered agency.
The mail handlers, sorters, carriers and other workers were advocating on behalf of a bill currently before Congress that would rework a law passed in 2006 that requires the USPS to pay $5.5 billion in pre-funded pension payments each September, a requirement that has left it bleeding money for the past five years.
The issue came to a head last week for postal workers in Queens when the postal service announced that it is conducting a study examining the feasibility of “consolidating” the mail processing operations now done at 142-02 20th Ave. in College Point into the Brooklyn processing plant — a move that would leave only two such plants in the city. The other is in Lower Manhattan. Between 250 and 300 people are employed at the Queens plant.
A USPS spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Fresh Meadows resident Neal Bean, a letter carrier based out of the Bayside post office branch, said at the rally that closing the Queens plant would severely affect borough mail delivery and kill jobs.
“It’ll delay the mail. We get our mail out of the [plant] on 20th Avenue in College Point, and they want all the mail to go through Brooklyn,” he said. “If they close up the facility, there will be less jobs, less handlers. It will affect all crafts, carriers, everyone.”
Ackerman, who is a co-signer of the pre-funding bill and called the rally the largest ever to take place in front of his office at 218-14 Northern Blvd., said that if the pre-funding requirement were repealed, the postal service would turn a profit each year. Beyond that, he said the prices of stamps and shipping need to be increased in order to fund all the work the postal service does.
“The problem is the price is kept artificially low … and that’s why there is not enough revenue,” he said, adding later, “We have to handle the pre-funding issue. No other agency has to do that, and if it weren’t for that issue you could get on financially sound footing.”
The crowd was very receptive to Ackerman’s message, and they chanted a “letter carriers’ cheer” of “hip, hip, hooray!” repeatedly after he finished his remarks, which were followed by speeches by Borough President Helen Marshall and union leaders in support of USPS workers.
Richard Dreyfus, a worker at the College Point plant, said it is imperative that the pre-funding mandate be repealed or reworked.
“We want to pre-fund, but not at such a drastic rate,” Dreyfus said. “We’re looking for some stress relief from the financial constriction which was imposed by Congress in 2006.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
