We the employees of the American Postal Workers Union - Local 2122, located in Bloomington Indiana, wish to make our customers of the 474 zip code area aware of the recent announcement on August 3rd, 2009, by Managers of the United States Postal Service (USPS), to transfer certain outgoing mail processing operations from the Bloomington Indiana Mail Processing Annex, to the Indianapolis Indiana Processing and Distribution Center. We feel this move will add an unneeded 100 mile round trip to our mail and cause delays in local service. It is a fact that nearly half of the outgoing mail processed at the Bloomington facility never needs to leave the 474 zip code area. We disagree with the findings of the USPS in that we expect there to be additional costs, not savings, if this consolidation is allowed to happen. To insure the safety of the mail, all canceling procedures in the USPS are monitored by a Bio-Hazard Detection System. This is a result of the 2001 tragedy where the mail was contaminated with anthrax spores resulting in the death of five people and the infection 17 others. As an example, if a positive test for the anthrax virus does occur, it is possible that an installation will be shut down for weeks or months before processing can resume. If this consolidation is allowed to occur, this safety feature of having multiple facilities to handle the workload of mail will be reduced. The effective loss of the Bloomington postmark, the likely delay of the local mail due to severe winter road conditions between Bloomington and Indianapolis and the possible construction of the proposed I-69 corridor, are also factors that point to this consolidation being a no- win issue. We feel this proposal by the USPS is not fiscally responsible. It does nothing to enhance the SERVICE in Postal Service. It did not make sense in the early 1990's when the USPS first tried it in our area and the result was that it failed miserably. It did not make sense in 2006-2007 after the USPS conducted "an exhaustive study" and found there to be "no significant cost savings". It does not make sense today. If you agree with us, please add your signature to this petition to allow us to inform the USPS that we want to "Keep OUR Mail in Bloomington."

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