Mail Slowdown Hurting Rural Communities, Union Notes

Last month, the American Postal Worker Union released a statement opposing recent changes to the U.S. Postal Service and called for more transparency.

USPS has ended the practice of transporting nearly all collected mail to processing facilities on the same day,  Now, much of the mail is not processed until the next morning, or after several days if collected before a weekend or holiday; and the union says that’s dramatically impacting rural communities.

Could USPS Changes Impact Oregon Elections?

Daniel Cortez, with the Oregon Postal Workers Union, said while the slow down presents many problems, it is too soon to tell how it will impact Oregon’s elections.

"We've been doing vote by mail since the beginning, and I have faith in Oregon's ability to figure this out," Cortez noted.  "I worry about what this means for the rest of the country."

Cortez said the latest changes are part of a pattern, and that USPS has deliberately been slowing down mail delivery for the last decade.  He said the union is calling for the previous standards to be restored, when mail was rarely sitting for more than a few hours.

The American People Deserve Better

"The American people need to be able to rely on their mail getting where it needs to go, whether it's prescriptions for our seniors and veterans, whether it's a birthday card from grandparents, or of course, ballots," he said..

Cortez added USPS has also closed regional processing centers across the state, meaning most of the mail in Oregon needs to pass through Portland, which contributes to the slowdown.

Click Here to read the union's January statement.

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