Postal Workers Will Protest Impending Closures Of Distribution Centers On Friday

USPS Offices In Madison, Eau Claire, La Crosse And Wausau Are Slated To Shut Down In 2015

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.Photo: Tales of a wandering Youkai (CC-BY)

Post office workers in four Wisconsin cities will protest impending facility closures on Friday.

Postal workers in Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison and Wausau are taking part in the demonstrations. Processing and distribution centers in each of those cities are slated to close next year.

About 150 cities are expected to participate in the nationwide protest, according to the American Postal Workers Union. The union said a plan to close 82 facilities will mean slower mail delivery times and service standards.

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Sally Davidow, the union’s communications director, said that when the changes go into effect, first-class mail will no longer be delivered overnight and mail that currently takes two days to deliver will take three or four. She said that the slowdown will have negative effects for USPS in the long run.

“In a day when people are expecting instant delivery of messages and stuff, it’s really a bad policy to do anything that would slow that down,” said Davidow.

The closures are part of a plan the USPS unveiled in 2011 in an attempt to balance its budget, which has taken major hits in recent years. Officials hope to reduce overall operating costs by $20 billion by 2017.

About 140 facilities were closed by the Postal Service in 2012. They say that has saved $865 million a year.

The Postal Service declined an interview request. However, a spokesperson said that “major volume decreases in First-Class mail” — which they say has plummeted 53 percent in the past 10 years — means that the system has “excess capacity” in its network.

The Wisconsin post offices will begin closing in the spring.