Durbin Meets with Postmaster General to Discuss Illinois Jobs
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with the U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General, Pat Donahoe, to discuss the financial condition of the Postal Service and a study on the possible consolidation of the mail processing operations performed at the Rockford Processing and Distribution Facility with those performed at the Postal Service’s Carol Stream facility. Similar moves, which often have a negative impact on the local workforce, have been proposed in other Illinois communities.
“I think the Postmaster General understands how important keeping good paying postal service jobs is to Rockford and other Illinois communities,” said Durbin. “At a time when Winnebago County has an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent – one of the highest in Illinois – the Rockford area simply cannot afford to lose stable, good-paying jobs.”
Earlier this month, Durbin, Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) expressed concern in a letter to Donahoe about the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to conduct a study examining the possibility of moving operations performed at the Rockford Processing and Distribution Facility to the Postal Service’s Carol Stream facility.
In June 2009, Durbin, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) – the committee with financial jurisdiction over the USPS – sent a similar letter to the Postmaster General in regards to their plans to conduct an Area Mail Processing study on the Processing and Distribution Annex in Quincy. After Durbin directed the Postal Service not to pursue the study as part of the FY2010 appropriations process, the USPS announced the termination of the study.