MISSOULA — The United States Postal Service (USPS) is set to remove a letter machine from Missoula's Kent Avenue location.
USPS says it won't impact efficiency. However, the local postal workers union is concerned.
"We're a public service. We're accountable to the public and the public needs to know when their service could possibly be affected," President of the American Postal Workers Union Local 113, Shawn Harding said.
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On August 24th, post office staff received notice from management that they would lose one of four letter sorting DIOSS machines.
"Those letter machines can process hundreds of thousands of packages per day. So, our concern with that is whether service standards would be affected and where the personnel would be affected," Harding said.
Harding notes that in his time with the postal service, he operated one of the machines for a year.
"If we eliminate a machine, because we won't have that redundancy, you know, if a machine goes down. Now, there's a possibility that we have to truck this stuff because we can't handle the loads. We would have to truck it to Spokane or truck it to Billings and truck it back, which is going to cause major delays, especially during the winter," Harding explained.
Harding says that while the machines may be old, they are necessary for the post office’s service standards.
"Bills go through that machine. Paychecks go through that machine. Legal notices, government notices," Harding said.
He’s also concerned that with the loss of the machine, jobs will be affected.
In a statement, a USPS spokesperson shared that they need to make upgrades. They did not mention any job cuts.
"The Postal Service regularly evaluates equipment and workflow to improve efficiency and better match capacity to current operational needs. As part of that optimization, we are removing a piece of processing equipment and adjusting operations accordingly. While processing performance can vary during any transition based on volume, mail/package mix, staffing, and operating conditions, our focus is to keep mail and packages moving and minimize customer impact through operational adjustments and contingency plans as needed. This was proposed as part of DBCS Optimization to extend bin capacity and will be taking place sometime after the beginning of the year. Standardizing the number of bins, will enable DPS sort plan consolidation from 9 to 6 sort plans, reducing hours used for setup and maintenance (operational and preventive)."
USPS adds that these changes would not take place until after November’s election.
“As none of these changes will be taking place until after the 2026 General Election, there will be no impact to the processing of Election Mail, including ballots.”
Harding, though concerned, says he’s cautiously optimistic. However, he wants to make sure people are aware of changes in the postal service both at the local and federal levels.
"My fear and the fear of the union here is to see something like this happen. It's just going to be the tip of the iceberg for what's to come," Harding stated.
To learn more about the postal service's operations, click here to read recent publications.
