For Immediate Release – April 20, 2016
Contact: Roger Kerson, roger.kerson@gmail.com, 734.645.0535
Advisory for Thursday, Apr. 21, San Jose
Field Hearing on U.S. Postal Service
Can the Postal Service Expand to Serve San Jose’s Hi-Tech Economy and Low-Income Communities?
Community Panel to Hear Testimony about Two Paths for USPS: Potential for 21st Century Communications Hub vs. More Cutbacks and Reduced Service
San Jose – A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service will convene a field hearing in San Jose on April 21. At this second of five field hearings scheduled for cities across the country, community leaders will hear testimony about the choice now facing the U.S. Postal Service: Build on the heritage of universal, nationwide service and expand to meet the needs of the hi-tech economy and low-income communities – or continue to shrink with declining service, facility closings and job cuts.
Who: Field Hearing officers
Cindy Chavez, Board of Supervisors, District 2, San Jose;
Paul Fong, former State Assembly member from the 28th District;
Carmen Montano, Vice-Mayor, City of Milpitas
Witness panel:
The Right Rev. Efrén A. Garza, RN;
Maria Noel Fernandez, Working Partnerships USA;
Liana Molina, California Reinvestment Coalition;
Reverend Jethroe Moore, President, San Jose NAACP
Stephen C. Pitts, PhD, Associate Chair, Labor Center, University of California at Berkeley
Moderator:
Steve Preminger, Special Ass’t. to County Executive, Santa Clara County
What: Field hearing on future of the U.S. Postal Service
When: Thursday, April 21, 2016 6:00 pm
Where: Berryessa Community Center
3050 Berryessa Road, San Jose, CA 95132
“Now is the time to grow – not shrink – a universal service that connects our nation from coast-to-coast,” said Rev. Garza.
Background: America’s public postal service, a national treasure which provides universal service to every urban, suburban and rural part of the United States, can capitalize on recent gains in ecommerce and package delivery to better serve the hi-tech Internet economy, add much-needed financial services in low-income communities and become a communications hub for the 21st century. Or the USPS can go in the opposite direction, by continuing down a failed path of service cuts, declining standards and facility closings. California, as the nation’s largest state, would potentially lose more postal plants than any other state.
Job cuts during the past decade and proposed future reductions in employment have had and will continue to have a severe impact, especially on veterans and minorities, for whom the USPS has long been a pathway to secure, middle-class jobs. The USPS workforce reflects the communities it serves across the nation, and the Postal Service is a major employer of not only veterans, but also disabled veterans.
Instead of cutting back, the USPS has new opportunities to grow – especially in communities like San Jose. Companies in Silicon Valley are changing the way our nation does business, with more Americans shopping on the Internet. As a result, there is growing demand for package delivery – and the women and men of the USPS have responded by handling double-digit growth in each of the past two years.
Witnesses will also discuss the opportunity for the USPS to expand its services by offering low-cost postal banking, a desperately needed service in many communities. As banks abandon low-income neighborhoods, more than 34 million U.S. households are now unserved or underserved by traditional banks. Low-income families spend more than $2,400 a year on fees and interest to high-cost, low-service payday lenders, nearly 10 percent of their income.
The USPS, a trusted institution with more than 30,000 branches all over the country, is uniquely positioned to expand its services and offer much-needed financial relief to underserved citizens.
As witnesses will discuss at the San Jose hearing, however, it’s not a given that USPS will take advantage of these opportunities. Instead of building on success and seizing new challenges, USPS management has downgraded delivery standards to the detriment of small businesses, patients relying on timely delivery of medicines and other postal customers.
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A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service is a coalition of more than 130 location and national civil rights, environmental, faith-based and labor organizations united to advocate for a great public postal service, including non-profit postal banking and other financial services. For more information, please visit http://www.agrandalliance.org