More than 40 French-speaking municipalities, including six in Neuchâtel, have decided to join forces to fight against the closure of their postal offices. They call on the Council of States to clarify the universal service mandate and the field of activity of La Poste before any new restructuring.
Opposing the yellow giant’s decision to close 170 post offices, 45 municipalities in French-speaking Switzerland have created the ‘Alliance of French-speaking municipalities against the closure of post offices’, they indicated in a press release released Tuesday evening. Among them are the cities of Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, Sion, and Bienne. In Neuchâtel, BOudry, Cortaillod, Les Ponts-de-Martel, Val-de-Ruz, Val-de-Travers and La Brévine have joined this alliance.
‘Post offices constitute one of the essential pillars of a living municipality’, write these municipalities. However, La Poste ‘is moving further and further away from the mission that citizens expect of it’, namely proximity to users, extensive services and easy access.
The 45 municipalities are calling for redefining the missions of La Poste according to citizens’ expectations. They sent a letter to the advisors in the French-speaking States and asked the upper house to adopt a motion aimed at clarifying the universal service mandate and the field of activity of La Poste before any new restructuring or any new dismantling.
Inevitable, according to La Poste
The yellow giant wants to maintain 2,000 sites across the country, including 600 in own operation, compared to 770 currently, and 1,400 subsidiaries in partnership. Of the 170 closed postal offices, more than 70 are in French-speaking Switzerland.
There are 19 in the canton of Vaud, 14 in Valais, 11 in Neuchâtel, 9 in Fribourg, 8 in the Jura, 5 in Geneva and 7 in the Bernese Jura and in the city of Bienne. In absolute numbers, the cantons most affected are Bern (25) and Ticino (20).
La Poste believes that this process is inevitable. She explains this in particular by the constant decline in customer visits to branches and the reduction in counter operations.
/ATS
