Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley announced a bipartisan effort Wednesday opposing plans by U.S. Postal Service officials to consolidate mail operations in Portland and downsize operations in Medford and Eugene.
Merkley’s office issued a letter Wednesday, signed by several senators and members of Congress, including Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, denouncing consolidation plans and calling for a prohibition of spending of government funds by the U.S. Postal Service to “convert a Processing and Distribution Center to a Local Processing Center.”
The statement comes after a months-long process by the Postal Service that sought input to proposed plans and spurred public demonstrations by local postal workers. American Postal Workers Union Local 342 has protested in recent months at Medford, Central Point and Grants Pass post office locations and staged a demonstration outside Bentz’s Medford office in mid-September.