(DETROIT, MICHIGAN) - Well, now we know why U.S. mail delivery has been so slow in Downtown Detroit: At one point, the United States Postal Service (USPS) closed 10 of the 11 local Post Offices there - including the one serving the rapidly growing business and residential area around the Renaissance Center.

But then the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) mobilized the City’s businesses and residents, picked up political support and got the decisions reversed, says James Stevenson, a Postal Clerk and the Union’s National Business Agent for Michigan, Illinois and surrounding States.

‘It’s a grass-roots campaign, boots on the ground,” Stevenson told Union Executive Vice President Debby Szeredy at a July 14th planning session for the Union’s larger Protect Our Public Postal Service Drive.

And the Detroiters won.

They couldn’t get the Renaissance Center Branch reopened - “But there’s an alternative at (500) Woodward Avenue. It’ll be a mecca,” Stevenson said.

The Detroit victory and other local successes in saving Post Offices from planned closures are models for the Union’s larger national effort.

It will culminate in rallies and demonstrations nationwide on a National Day of Action on July 28th around the Protect Our Public Postal Service theme.

Details and toolkits are available at www.apwu.org/nopostofficeclosures.

It’s wins like that, in areas large and small, with which the Union plans to gain momentum as it launches its second drive to save the Postal Service.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: APWU launches ‘Protect Our Public Postal Service’ drive – People's World