HAMPDEN, Maine — Members of two unions representing postal workers are set to begin a picketing campaign against proposed changes to the United States Postal Service Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution Center in Hampden.
"I firmly believe that people in central and northern Maine will not be receiving the same level of service, as say, southern Maine," Robert Perocchi, president of the Bangor chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, said Tuesday.
The facility, one of two in the state, is the primary hub for mail going to and from eastern and northern Maine. As part of its Delivering for America initiative, United States Postal Service is proposing to change the Hampden location from a Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) to a Local Processing Center (LPC), a new entity that would ship off some functions, like mail headed out-of-state, to a larger center in Scarborough.
"Mail is going to go even further down to the Scarborough plant. You’ve got additional mileage, you've got variables such as weather in this state," Perocchi said.
The USPS is pushing back against the notion that what it calls "modernization" of the Hampden facility will lead to worse service in rural parts of the state.
Steve Doherty, a spokesperson for the USPS, said in an email to NEWS CENTER Maine that "new equipment and technology… will allow... [the facility] to better serve our northern Maine customers."
Still, many outside the postal service remain skeptical.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has been outspoken in resisting any consolidation of the Hampden facility into the Scarborough location, sending a letter last fall urging U.S. Postmaster Gen. Louis DeJoy to keep the Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution Center open.
The Hampden town council, for its part, has penned a similar letter.
Some of the concern at the municipal level is rooted in the fact that the USPS plans to transfer nine employees away from the Hampden facility if its plan goes forward.
The public will have a chance to give input to the postal service at a meeting on Feb. 29 in Brewer.