FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — As part of a plan to upgrade its Postal processing, transportation, and delivery networks, USPS announced that it will be converting its Processing and Distribution Centers in Bismarck, Grand Forks, Huron, S.D. to Local Processing Centers.
This means mail in those regions would first be sent to Fargo before being sent on to their destinations, even if that destination is in the area of a Local Processing center.
These changes have raised concerns with the American Postal Workers Union however.
They say that they have not been given enough information about the proposed changes, and while USPS has said there will not be layoffs, that doesn’t mean employees won’t be affected.
“I have my clerks from all over the state of North Dakota, the small towns. You know they’re calling, they’re worried , they’re concerned, you know. “Am I going to have a job?” What are they going to do?” Are they going to combine us, stuff like that. And unfortunately, I don’t have answers I can give them.” Heather Dick, VP of the North Dakota American Postal Workers Union said.
The struggle to receive information has made it difficult for the union to respond to these changes, and help their members.
“They’re not real specific on what all is being impacted, what’s not being impacted. And we won’t actually know until it actually happens.”USPS does expect some employees to be impacted by these changes, which could mean switching jobs, or moving to a new location. Dick worries that this could lead to retention issues while USPS already struggles to compete for new hires with companies like Amazon.
“It affects the employees, it affects the families. You still have a job, you just don’t know where your job is going to be.”
They are also concerned about the delays that people are already seeing with their mail potentially becoming worse. They say that mail between Fargo and Bismarck currently can take over ten days to arrive.
Delays like this can severely impact rural customers who rely on USPS to deliver their medications.
“We have harsh winters, you know. A lot of times the interstates are closed. People need their prescriptions. The small town people need their prescriptions, they need their medicine. And the postal service is the one that gets it to them.”
The USPS declined additional comment.
Comments are closed
Sorry, but you cannot leave a comment for this post.