On Tuesday, April 17, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) will conduct rallies and informational leafleting at post offices around the country to highlight an urgent message: Congress must act now to avert a Postal Service disaster.

A moratorium on the closure of post offices and mail processing plants expires on May 15, 2012, and postal officials have said they intend to begin consolidating more than 200 mail processing facilities and 3,600 post offices if Congress fails to act by the deadline. 

Why is this happening? The Postal Service is facing a financial “crisis,” but not for the reasons you might think. In December 2006, Congress passed a law that requires the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of future retiree health benefits over a 10-year period. No other government agency or private business is required to bear such a burden, which drains $5.5 billion annually from USPS revenues.

Along with closing post offices and mail processing facilities, the Postal Service plans to lay off up to 100,000 employees, eliminate overnight delivery of first-class mail and periodicals, change two-day service to three-days, and end Saturday deliveries.

Closing mail processing centers and post offices and degrading services are unnecessary – and destructive. These changes would particularly hurt small businesses, the elderly, rural areas, and communities around the country.

These cuts would damage the U.S. economy at a time we can least afford it. The Postal Service is the heart of a $1.3 trillion mailing industry that supports 9 million private-sector jobs that accounts for six percent of U.S. economic activity.

Weakening the Postal Service will jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs, unnecessarily. If Congress acts responsibly, the Postal Service can continue to adapt to evolving technology, as it always has.

Congress created this problem; and Congress can fix it. But they have to act NOW to implement real reform – before the Postal Service begins closing post offices and dismantling its network of mail processing centers.