Regulator rejects union request to halt USPS consolidation efforts

A federal regulator has rejected a union request to stop the Postal Service from going forward with scheduled service changes next week.

The Postal Regulatory Commission said that the American Postal Workers Union had failed to prove that it was necessary to block USPS from moving ahead with its efforts to consolidate mail processing centers in July.

{mosads}“The potential harm to the Postal Service from a preliminary injunction outweighs the potential harm to mailers from not issuing a preliminary injunction,” the commission wrote.

The commission has yet to issue a final ruling on APWU’s complaint over the Postal Service’s consolidation efforts, which will start with 48 processing centers this summer. USPS will consolidate 140 centers in all through February, with a second phase scheduled to start in 2014.

APWU’s president, Cliff Guffey, said in a statement that the PRC’s actions showed it needed more influence.

“The decision demonstrates the need to strengthen the commission’s authority and to enhance public input into USPS plans that would affect service on a nationwide basis,” Guffey said.

With USPS already billions of dollars in the red this fiscal year, the Senate passed a postal reform bill in April. House Republicans are pushing a vastly different bill, and hope to bring it to the floor over the next month or so.