MISSOULA, Mont. – Months ago, a potential decision shocked residents and business owners throughout western Montana, after they learned that the united states postal service wanted to move some of their operations from the Missoula facility to Spokane.
This decision has been lengthy but after multiple community meetings, press conferences and letters from local and state officials, Postmaster Louis DeJoy announced they are pausing moving plans.
Today Senator Jon Tester spoke about his concerns for the move.
“You don’t have an extra day. You can’t wait around. You’re depending on the mail to be delivered the way the mail used to be delivered through rain, through snow, through sleet, everything cold, hot, it doesn’t matter. But when you’re talking about this kind of distance, it’s going to have an impact on the standard of delivery for the mail,” said Senator Tester.
Community leaders gathered at the Missoula downtown postal building for the conference to discuss the strides made on the topic, with many expressing that they support keeping operations local.
A major topic of discussion was the impact that this move could have on rural communities and with the geography of Montana, how much time would be added to deliveries if the shift to Spokane were to happen.
The overall consensus of the group was opposition to the location change, with many people citing an already noticeable deterioration of services since 2012 and that’s with operations remaining in Missoula.
“Nobody from here thinks this is a good plan and we keep telling this to them and they keep trying to push and push it. So, it is depressing, especially to the newer, more junior employees that are more at risk of losing their jobs. We need a better standard. We need more employees not deteriorating. It. If you were to do a 180 and move in that direction, that would go a long way. So, it’s going to take a lot to build back our trust in them now,” said President of the American Postal Worker Union Local #113 Robert Hopp.
We will continue to follow this story until a final decision is made about the potential operations move and how this will impact the state.
On the national level, Senator Tester has introduced his PARCEL Act, a bill that would prohibit the consolidation of mail processing operations nationwide, to ensure operations would stay in Missoula.
