Expecting Downgrade, Postal Workers Relieved Jobs Will Stay

State and local union leaders reacted with relief as the U.S. Postal Service said it would keep its Charleston mail processing facility.

Craig Brown, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 133, said his national president called late Wednesday and told him to expect some good news.

He’d been bracing for something else. 

“I fully expected the whole year that whenever they did give us the final result, they would downgrade the plant and send the mail to Pittsburgh before they send it back. So, I was very shocked, to be quite honest about it.”

The U.S. Postal Service late last year announced a plan to convert the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center into a local processing hub. The change would have sent other functions, and workers, to southwest Pennsylvania.

Instead, those workers will stay in Charleston, Brown said, with minimal changes to their work.

“They’re telling us, no impact on jobs,” he said. “No one will leave the facility. No jobs will be lost.”

Just the uncertainty created by the proposal had dampened morale among local workers. Tim Holstein, the union’s local and state vice president, said that all changed on Thursday.

“There was a definite shift in change in the facility, in the mood,” Holstein said. “There were smiles, there were some heads being lifted.”

As a bonus, the Postal Service will invest nearly $23 million in Charleston’s processing center and another $18 million at the main post office downtown. The improvements will include a new roof, new bathrooms and break areas. Electric vehicle charging stations will be installed for a future fleet of delivery trucks.

Holstein thanked the postal customers who voiced their concerns. Josh Sword, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, credited union members with doing the work of convincing the public and state and local leaders that the jobs were important to keep from moving out of state.

Sword called it a major victory. 

“My feeling is, if they make the investments into the property, then that’s an indicator that they’re there to stay,” he said, “which is good for local workers and good for the citizens with mail delivery.”