Leaders with the American Postal Workers Union Local 133 continue to believe the probable plan of the United States Postal Service (USPS) is to close or downsize South Charleston’s statewide Mail Processing and Distribution Facility and process and distribute West Virginia mail out of Pittsburgh.
Over the weekend, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., released a statement regarding a conversation he had with U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on the center’s future.
“I just had a productive call with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about the Mail Processing Facility Review of its Charleston Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) facility,” Manchin said in the statement. “The South Charleston facility will not have one single employee laid off, and instead deliver major investments to the facility to better meet the demands of the public and the market.”
Manchin’s statement did say there are “continued efforts to keep West Virginia’s postal facility in the state.” It also continued to “encourage every West Virginian to submit comments to the USPS (public survey) at the link here opposing changes to the West Virginia mail processing facility.”
Postal Workers Union 133 Vice president Tim Holstein said experience tells him to be wary.
“We’ve got this message before,” Holstein said. “It’s kind of like, look at what this hand is doing, not what this hand’s doing. So we’re still concerned, we’re still in a fight.”
Holstein said while federal employees cannot strike, they can set up informational pickets, and two are scheduled. The first is Thursday Dec 7 from 5 until 7 p.m. at the Charleston main post office on Lee Street. The second is this Saturday, Dec 9, from 10 a.m. until noon on Jefferson road in South Charleston, near the South Charleston Recreation Center.
Holstein says until he sees verification of DeJoy’s statement to Manchin, he won’t believe it.
“Until I see this major infrastructure that’s going to come to the facility,” Holstein said. “My local is supposed to be notified of any work that takes place on any building or any potential work that’s supposed to take place on any building. And we have not seen anything. “
DeJoy’s ten year “Delivering for America” postal transformation plan includes overhauling regional mail processing and distribution centers and “leveraging” existing sites in the process.
The facility employs 800 people. About 500 are union workers.
Holstein said while federal employees can not strike, they can set up informational pickets, and two are scheduled. The first is Thursday December 7 from 5 until 7 p.m. at the Charleston main post office on Lee Street. The second is this Saturday, December 9 from 10 a.m. until noon on Jefferson road in South Charleston, near the South Charleston Recreation Center.
“That’s something that we’re going to be looking at,” Holstein said. “Possibly toward the end of this week. we need to make sure that our timeline fits with the (USPS public) survey.”
WVPB has attempted to contact USPS for comment. We had received no response at the time of publication.
