Mainers to rally in support of packages and letters
Later today, postal workers will rally with supporters at three locations around Maine, including Portland, to call attention to the mail system's precarious financial system and what's at stake for businesses, joining a nationwide movement.
During this so-called day of action to "Save America's Postal Service," groups in Augusta, Bangor and at 2 Fish Pier in Portland, as well as across the country, will call for congressional action to prevent more job cutting and slashing of services in the postal system. The rallies here will also thank U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud for co-sponsoring a house bill that would change the way the postal service budgets for retirees' health benefits.
The American Postal Systems Union says the bill would correct a 2006 Congressional mandate that the postal service pre-fund retiree health benefits for the next 75 years. That cost, $21 billion since 2007, accounts for all of the agency's losses, the union claims. Meanwhile, it says that "despite the worst recession in 80 years, despite competition from the Internet, despite everything you've heard, postal operating revenues exceeded costs by $611 million in the four fiscal years since 2007."
The Maine AFL-CIO wrote in a press release, "Some of our more rural communities could be especially hard hit by an unnecessary reduction of services. These are communities that can least afford the loss of services and have fewer available alternatives."
The rally in Portland begins at 4 p.m. and ends at 5:30 p.m.
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