CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Local representatives joined members of American Postal Workers Union Local 133 to continue to address concerns and spread the word about potential cutbacks and changes in operations to come to Charleston’s postal processing center.
The union representing about 500 of the 800 employees which make up the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center met with Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin and some members of West Virginia AFL-CIO, who support them, to hold an informational picket at the post office downtown Thursday evening.
This was held in regards to the U.S Postal Service’s review of the center and the unexpected impact that’s been rumored to come with it, which could include a shift in operations at the facility that would take some of the processing services to Pennsylvania.
Union members were passing out flyers Thursday containing information about the affects the facility’s possible transition or cutbacks could mean for residents’ mail services. President of Charleston’s branch of Postal Workers Union Local 133 Craig Brown told MetroNews at Thursday’s rally that they feel it’s important to tell people that there will be hold-ups if the transition goes through.
“It’s going to delay the mail if they take any of our mail at our plant up at Southridge and move it to Pittsburgh,” Brown said. “I mean it’s going to delay medicines, bills, one to two days at least.”
They also were encouraging residents to scan a QR code to give their comments as part of the review.
Brown said the move will also affect the employees at the facility. He said while they won’t be laid-off there could be many who have to relocate.
“So, that’s what we’re looking at if this goes through,” he said. “What they have to do if they get rid of those jobs is what we call excess, they’re going to excess them out of our facility.”
Brown said even a stipulation in the local union’s contract preventing employees from having to move far would still not work in this case.
“Now, our union has a clause that they have to find them a place within 50 miles of our facility, but where is that?” “We have no other big facilities in the state, we have post offices,” Brown said.
He said these reviews are happening at postal processing plants across the country, and there have already been six of them that were told they will be losing up to 60 to 70 employees.
A Charleston processing center employee, Kayla Reynolds, said she has been working at the facility for ten years now, and the sudden threat of employee cutbacks there just doesn’t make sense to her.
“I think these are really good jobs in a state that really doesn’t have a lot of really good jobs,” Reynolds told MetroNews at the rally Thursday.
In addition, Reynolds said as far as the mail service hold-ups go for residents, the nationwide review is already causing that issue in other places.
“The mail is quite frankly already being delayed, we’ve seen pictures from other facilities in Tennessee where mail is on pallets outside not being processed,” she said.
Reynolds said it would be a shame to bring the cutbacks to such a strong processing plant which the local one represents. She said they were one of the plants which kept operations going even through the many Covid-19 shutdowns.
“It was us, we were working 12 hours a day, 6, 7 days a week, and this is their way of thanking us is by moving the mail out of here and taking a lot of jobs away from us,” said Reynolds.
However, Brown said people were already taking a lot of flyers and they were getting a lot of feedback from the public so far.
“I think we’ve had more push back at our plant than anywhere else in the country so far, I mean, we’re the only plant in the state, I can’t imagine them doing away with the last plant in the state of West Virginia,” said Brown.
Various local and state leaders have been urging General Postmaster Louis DeJoy to reconsider the possible cutbacks and changes at the facility that could come out of the review since the Postal Service began conducting it just before the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Mayor Goodwin, along with U.S Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito are among those leaders who have now reached out to DeJoy regarding the review.
Last week, Goodwin penned a letter to DeJoy “urging reconsideration,” and Capito also penned a letter to the postmaster general Thursday. Part of Capito’s letter read:
“While I understand the need for the United States Postal Service (USPS) to review its operations and to improve upon them, I believe that this facility is essential not only for all 800 employees at the center, but also for the West Virginians that depend on it for all their postal needs,” Capito wrote.
“USPS should be transparent and forthright as the review is conducted. Confusion and lack of information should not have a place in this process,” she continued.
Manchin spoke to DeJoy over the weekend and said DeJoy assured him that rumored layoffs at the facility would not happen. However, union members say layoffs aren’t the concern, now, but rather taking postal workers out of the state altogether is the bigger issue.
Brown said the facility processes mail from Clarksburg down in West Virginia, as well as some of South Western Virginia and South Eastern Kentucky.
The union will meet Saturday morning near the South Charleston Community Center to continue their efforts of spreading information about the processing facility transition. They said they also have plans to hold rallies in Clarksburg, Huntington, and Beckley locations.