Postal Service a step closer to Morgan consolidation

By Lawrence Lerner

The United States Postal Service appears to have moved one step closer to consolidating a Bronx mail distribution facility with Chelsea’s Morgan Distribution Center, possibly threatening to slow mail delivery in the Bronx and bring increased postal truck traffic into an already congested area on the West Side of Manhattan.

According to a 20-page internal audit posted on the USPS Website last week, the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General has given thumbs-up to an earlier proposal, released in January, to consolidate the Bronx Processing and Distribution Center, at 149th St. and Grand Concourse, into Morgan, which stretches from 28th to 30th Sts. between Ninth and 10th Aves. The consolidation is being sought because of a significant decrease in single-piece, first-class mail that has left the Postal Service with excess capacity at its facilities.

The audit, dated July 18 but released only last week by the Postal Service, with no warning given to the New York Area Metro Postal Union or local elected officials, supports the earlier study while pointing out some deficiencies in it. For instance, while the initial proposal projected savings of $5.9 million annually, the audit adjusted that by $1.4 million, to $4.5 million annually.

The audit also checked to see whether the original proposal accurately predicted the consolidation’s impact on peak-hour trailer volume at Morgan, worker reassignments and local Bronx mail delivery, three issues dear to both the union and politicians.

“If it goes through, this consolidation will undoubtedly increase truck traffic on the West side: Even the audit says so, though it tries to downplay the effect,” said Chuck Zlatkin, who sits on the union’s executive board. “They’ll use this to force workers into early retirement, since our package is structured so the earlier you retire, the less you get in retirement. And delivery in the Bronx is slated to slow by a day, according to the audit, even though they play that down, too.”

Currently, mail is collected in the Bronx and brought by large trucks to Morgan for preliminary sorting into Bronx and non-Bronx mail. Bronx mail is then trucked back to the Bronx center for secondary sorting before being loaded onto the more numerous small trucks that head out on local delivery routes.

The consolidation would move this secondary sorting from the Bronx to Morgan. At issue is whether mail will be moved back to the Bronx—as is done now—for loading onto small trucks, or whether the small trucks will embark on Bronx delivery routes from Morgan, creating more traffic in West Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen.

In a January letter to USPS signed by Congressmember Jerry Nadler, State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the officials took a firm stance against what they see as a possible traffic nightmare near Morgan, especially in the context of the Hudson Yards rezoning, Javits Center expansion, No. 7 subway line extension and Moynihan Station project.

When local electeds heard of the audit last week, they immediately called a meeting with union representatives to devise a response.

“We’re trying to sort this out and figure out the best strategy to stop this project,” said Laura Morrison, Duane’s chief of staff. “The Postal Service never made us aware that the original proposal had been done, even though they promised to apprise us when it was completed. And the same thing happened with the audit.”

True to form, the postal service played down the audit and its implications.

“We’re talking about two mail plants eight miles apart that are theoretically doing the same thing,” said Patricia McGovern, the Postal Service’s New York District spokesperson. “We look at plants throughout the country with extra downtime. Some proposals throughout the country have gone through, while some haven’t. This is not a done deal.”

But Zlatkin, who says he’s seen these tactics before, doesn’t buy it.

“For a while, they’ve been telling journalists a that they were just in the planning stages and that unions were overreacting,” he said, “but this audit vindicates our belief that the Postal Service will go ahead with their plans, regardless of what anyone says or the impacts it will have.”

He also believes that the Postal Service is not interested in letting the public comment on the possible consolidation, which by law it is required to do. Back in January, local politicians made it clear they wanted public meetings not only in the Bronx but in Chelsea as well. USPS’s McGovern promised at least one meeting but hedged on two.

But Zlatkin fears the Postal Service will short-circuit the process altogether by implementing the proposal in May of next near, a month before it must get community input by law.

“We’ve heard from a reliable source that May 5, 2008, would be the tentative implementation date,” said Zlatkin, “since if they don’t get this started by June 2008, by law they’ll have to hold public meetings and take comments into consideration.”

McGovern downplayed such scenarios, reiterating that the consolidation proposal study “is not officially complete until the public has a chance to comment. If the proposal reaches the next stage, that will happen, and the comments will be incorporated into the study, which will then be resubmitted the New York City Area Office and our Washington, D.C., headquarters,” she said. “But I haven’t gotten the go-ahead to set up any meetings yet.