In theory, all sorts of formal mechanisms exist for people to meet and talk over the issues of the day, places like Kirkland City Council meetings and land-use forums.
Then there’s reality, places where people really do bump into each other and talk about the issues of the day.
Places like post offices.
Sure, countless other ways exist for people to talk things over, from coffee shops to the Internet, but the local post office is certainly one of the best-known destinations in most communities.
Now Postal Service employees, including some from Kirkland, are trying to rally support for measures that would preserve post-office operations and change perceptions about postal problems.
“We’ve been able to deal with the invention of the telephone and telegraph. We can deal with this,” said Rick Horner, a Bellevue letter carrier who lives on Northeast 116th Street in Kirkland and has 33 years of post-office service.Horner also is the legislative committee chairperson for Branch 79 of the National Association of Letter Carriers in Seattle, which took part in a “Day of Action to Save America’s Postal Service” Tuesday on Mercer Island.
The rally was at the offices of Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Mercer Island, to urge him to support House Bill 1351 in Congress, which the union argues would deal with the main problem facing the Postal Service.
Despite widespread public perceptions that the problem stems from things like the rise of email, Horner says the real reason is 2006 federal legislation. That law required the Postal Service to pre-fund future health-care benefits for 75 years, and do it within 10 years, he said, at a cost of about $5.5 billion a year.
No other private company, or public agency, faces such a financial burden, he said, and that’s what’s leading to proposals for things like closing 3,700 post offices, ending Saturday delivery or firing 120,000 employees.
In Kirkland, which Horner estimates has about 150 postal employees, such actions could lead to about 17 percent staffing cuts, putting about 20 people or more out of work.
Horner said the intent of the rally, plus others held at congressional offices across the country, was to urge Reichert to sign House Bill 1351, and also to motivate the public to become involved in discussions about saving the Postal Service.
“It binds together this vast land nation, offering inexpensive service to every resident no matter how remote, and it also unifies individual communities,” is how the union puts it.
Nancy Barnes, of Renton, was at the rally in support of her husband, Noel, who she said was finishing up his route. Noel Barnes works out of the Kirkland office and has been with the Postal Service for 21 years.
Standing with Barnes was retired postal worker Gene Orcutt, who started with the Postal Service in 1957 working for $1.62 per hour. He retired from the Renton office in 1989. He said he was there to save the post office.
“I like my retirement check,” Orcutt added.
He worries that the federal government will view the future retiree health benefit fund as a cash cow they can apply somewhere else.
According to rally organizers, the Postal Service hasn’t used a dime of taxpayer money in 30 years. All its revenue is earned from the sale of its products and services.
