The future of mail processing in Brockton, Massachusetts, is up in the air as the U.S. Postal Service weighs a plan to transfer parts of its local operations over to Providence, Rhode Island. This move is contemplated as part of the USPS's broader "Delivering for America" plan - a decade-long strategy aimed at cutting costs and ramping up efficiency in the face of shifting mail and package delivery demands.
Details surfaced in a February 28 USPS report, which pointed to a possible redesign of the Brockton Processing and Distribution Center located on Liberty St. The idea is, by shifting the processing of outgoing mail to Providence, the Brockton plant could better handle an uptick in local mail and package volumes. This reshuffle could see an investment of between $8-10 million to overhaul the Brockton facility, with potential savings up to $2.4 million annually, Boston 25 News reported.
However, not everyone is buying the USPS's efficiency argument. President Steven Curreri of South Shore Area Local #3844 sounded the alarm over anticipated downsizing and slower mail delivery that could result from the consolidation. "Automatically you’re going to end up with an extra day or two of delivery,” Curreri told Boston 25 News. "It’s going to delay the mail. No matter how you look at it, it will delay the mail."
The USPS has tried to allay concerns by stating there will be no career employee layoffs despite the potential operations shift. But Curreri and other union members remain wary, urging local workers to make their voices heard at an upcoming public hearing on March 6. In his appeal to union members, Curreri wrote, "Please understand, this is just the beginning. They will take a little here and there, then they will come for more and then more, until this building is just and empty shell", reinforcing the sense of a slippery slope toward further cutbacks. This narrative has been corroborated by BNNbreaking coverage on the topic.
