U.S. Postal Service Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Postal Unions Warn Privatizing Mail Industry Could Hurt Rural Communities

Picket signs and posters in hand, dozens gathered outside Charleston’s main post office last week to sound the alarm over looming postal job cuts and a move toward privatizing domestic mail services.

For years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been on the financial decline, capped with a $9.5 billion net loss in fiscal year 2024. President Donald Trump has floated plans to restructure the agency, and earlier this month USPS announced it would cut 10,000 jobs nationally through a voluntary early retirement program.

But Charleston-area postal unions worry that could bring risks to harder-to-reach rural communities, including much of West Virginia.

“Do you really think that they’re going to want to deliver one piece of mail to you all the way up a holler in West Virginia, versus concentrate on the inner city and the corporations here inside the city?” said Tim Holstein, vice president of Charleston’s American Postal Workers Union Local 133.

Holstein helped organize Thursday’s rally, part of a nationwide demonstration from postal unions to raise concerns over the looming changes to the nation’s public mail service.

“It’s just a no-win for union workers,” Holstein said at the rally. “It’s a no win for West Virginia, being a rural state.”

Rob Lloyd is a letter carrier who serves as secretary of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 531, based in Charleston.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Letter carrier Rob Lloyd — who also serves as secretary for the Charleston-area Branch 531 of the National Association of Letter Carriers — said he saw cutbacks on USPS coming, just not this fast.

“These people on Capitol Hill, they want to come after people that have good-paying jobs,” Lloyd said. “They attack labor unions. They do it all the time. You can kind of see the writing on the wall with the way things have happened. I wasn’t anticipating it being this swift and this scary.”

Like some others at the rally, Lloyd expressed particular concern over the newly launched Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by entrepreneur and advisor Elon Musk. DOGE has been at the forefront of federal workforce cuts nationwide since launching under the Trump administration.

“It’s really scary, because you know that he doesn’t have any clue what we do every day — the service we provide to the American people,” Lloyd said.

Concerns like these are shared by postal workers at all levels, including management. Outgoing Charleston Postmaster David Staton said reductions to USPS come at workers’ expense, and would be a detriment to the local community.

“We just don’t want to lose any jobs here in the state that are well-paying jobs,” Staton said. “We can’t afford to lose jobs here.”

Tim Powers has worked in the postal industry for nearly three decades, and today serves as president of the Charleston-area National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 305. But years ago he worked at a postal facility in Huntington that was shut down, forcing him to transfer to Charleston.

Picketers huddle outside a Charleston post office March 20 amid a rally against cuts to the federal workforce proposed by the administration of President Donald Trump.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

That was a difficult experience Powers hopes unions can shield today’s workforce from.

“I do know what it’s like to have your life interrupted already by work. At this point, this is obviously at a significantly different level [than] that,” Powers said. “Over the last few years, we’ve had to fight and make the people aware more than ever of the danger that’s facing the postal service.”

The picket line is familiar territory for Charleston’s postal workers. In 2023, local postal unions began rallying against plans to consolidate a South Charleston mail processing center, the only full processing facility in the state.

The proposal would have transferred many services and positions at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center to a facility near Pittsburgh, but USPS ultimately changed course and left the facility’s operations in place.

If USPS is privatized or downsized, “the people are the ones that will lose their postal service and suffer the most,” Powers said. “And, of course, all of us that work here as well. Because it’ll be only the uber rich, only the billionaires [who] benefit from breaking up something and profiting off of it. Everybody else will have slower service and higher prices.”

While having to reassert his industry’s value may be tiring, Holstein said he and other union workers organize to support the postal service because of the resource it provides workers and residents alike.

“This is a kind of unique job, because not only am I doing it for my members,” Holstein said. “[But] I am also doing it for the public. We’re here to fight, and we fight to win.”

Charleston Postal Employees Rally Against Federal Workforce Cuts

Dozens of union workers and community members gathered outside Charleston’s main post office to voice opposition to federal job cuts Thursday afternoon.

President Donald Trump has set reducing government spending as an early administrative priority for his second term, approving controversial cuts across the federal workforce. Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union Local 133, worries that could come with a move toward privatizing the nation’s postal service.

Tim Holstein serves as vice president of American Postal Workers Union Local 133, a chapter based in Charleston. Pictured in the center, he addresses attendees at a March 20 rally.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“Privatization would really be detrimental to the rural West Virginians in the state,” Holstein told West Virginia Public Broadcasting at the Thursday rally. “Do you really think that they’re going to want to deliver one piece of mail to you all the way up in a holler in West Virginia, versus concentrate on the inner city and corporations here inside the city?”

Trump has previously floated ideas of privatizing or restructuring the United States Postal Service (USPS), citing long-running financial concerns. USPS has also agreed to cut 10,000 workers as part of the federal spending cuts being led by the Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Holstein said privatization and job cuts would come at the expense of members of the public who rely on the postal service, especially those in harder-to-reach areas.

Jeannie Meyers and Alison Meyers, from left, are workers at the United States Postal Services mail processing center in South Charleston.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“It’s just a no-win for union workers,” Holstein said. “It’s a no-win for West Virginia, being a rural state.”

Charleston is one of more than 150 cities across the country to host a rally over privatization and workforce concerns. Holstein urged residents to reach out to their members of the United States Congress to discourage privatization, adding that union workers and their supporters will continue to hold rallies on the issue.

“We’re here to fight, and we fight to win,” Holstein said. “We’ll continue to do what we have to do to sustain the work here for our union members and to sustain the facility and the mail here in West Virginia.”

Expecting Downgrade, Postal Workers Relieved Jobs Will Stay

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.

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.”

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.”

Postal Union Pursues Grievance Claims For Workers Removed From Schedule

A postal workers’ union in Kanawha County has entered grievance procedure over the removal of four workers from a Charleston mail processing facility’s schedule.

Four workers at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center ushered in the new month with unexpected letters from their employers.

Sent by facility management May 1, these letters said that the workers would be removed from the work schedule in a matter of days “due to the needs of this facility.”

In subsequent correspondence with workers, management said they were required to reduce the number of temporary workers at the facility by regional officials with the United States Postal Service (USPS), which oversees the Charleston center.

In response, representatives with Charleston’s American Postal Workers Union Local 133 are pursuing grievance claims on behalf of the four workers, as months-long tensions between USPS and local workers continue to flare.

Union concerns

Tim Holstein, union vice president, alleged that the move from management constituted “pretextual” termination — providing a false reason for removing workers to conceal a reason that violates their contracts.

Holstein said this is especially evident in the fact that current employees are struggling to keep up with demands on the facility.

“How can you say you’re letting these employees go due to lack of work — or you don’t need them on the schedule — when you have all this mail that we’re failing on?” he asked.

All four workers are temporary employees with USPS, which means they have fewer protections than full-time, career employees. They can be dismissed for a lack of work, but dismissal would violate their contracts if it was done for “pretextual” reasons.

In the grievance proceedings, Holstein said union representatives are making the case that the dismissal of temporary staff was spurred by the broader effort to reduce mailing operations in West Virginia.

Ongoing tensions

In late 2023, USPS officials announced they would reduce operations and staff at the Charleston facility, which currently serves as West Virginia’s only full USPS mail processing center and handles a significant amount of the state’s shipping and delivery services.

The facility downgrading — part of a ten-year plan to streamline USPS operations nationally — would move certain mail processing services to facilities in the Pittsburgh area, and possibly require some West Virginia staff to relocate.

But the decision was met with swift blowback from workers, community members and elected officials.

Earlier this month, USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he would pause delivery network changes until at least 2025 as concern over the USPS plan gained traction nationwide.

Members of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union 133 hosted informational pickets in 2023 over proposed changes to a local mail processing facility.

*Photo Credit: American Postal Workers Union 133*

DeJoy’s decision seemingly marked good news for workers, delaying any downsizing planned for the Charleston facility.

But Holstein said the temporary nature of the decision, paired with the reduction in work opportunities at the mail processing center, has only stirred up more concern on the ground.

Holstein alleged that management has kept the temporary workers on staff without providing hours or pay so that they are more likely to quit, and USPS will not have to provide them severance benefits.

“They’re basically putting these employees off the schedule in efforts and hopes that what they’re gonna say is, ‘Screw it, I quit,’ so they’re not responsible,” he said. “Then now they’re off the hook … as far as any low earnings or unemployment benefits.”

In a written statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, USPS Spokesperson Naddia Dhalai did not respond to these claims directly. But she said that “operational flexibility” is a key part of the temporary worker position for USPS.

“Like all employers who have a flexible employee category, there is a higher turnover rate with these employees, providing us the opportunity to both capture savings by rightsizing our workforce when making long overdue operational changes and avoiding any career layoffs,” she wrote.

Grievance proceedings

Union workers are bound to a step-by-step grievance procedure established in the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

The first step in these proceedings requires an individual worker to meet with their direct supervisor. Holstein said the union has already completed this step of the process, to no avail.

Local union representatives must then meet with USPS officials. If a decision is not reached, national union representatives must meet with a regional USPS official and come to a resolution, or enter a binding arbitration process.

Holstein said the union’s goal is to get the workers their prior shifts back and secure them compensation for the four hours of work they are guaranteed to receive each day through their contracts. Since receiving the letters, the workers have not received this pay, he said.

But Holstein said the grievance process can be arduous, with barriers to communicating with USPS that can be taxing on staff members undertaking its steps.

“The only thing that’s really becoming difficult for us to fight is the complacency of upper-level management to [not] provide the information that shows they’re wrong,” he said.

Still, Holstein said the union plans to push on with its claims.

“It’s an uphill battle that we fought for a long time,” he said. “It’s nothing unusual to us.”

USPS Will Discuss Plans For Charleston Processing Center Tonight

The United States Postal Service is hosting a meeting this evening regarding plans to downsize a Charleston mail processing facility. The plans received pushback from union workers and state lawmakers.

Updated on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 3:45 p.m.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will host a public hearing Wednesday on its plans to downsize a Charleston mail processing center.

Last fall, USPS received pushback over its downsizing plan for the Charleston Mail Processing and Distribution Center, which is the only USPS processing center in West Virginia.

USPS has since compiled and released findings on the plan, which it will discuss with members of the public Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center.

Meanwhile, controversy over the proposal has grown among some residents, union employees and even state lawmakers.

Critics say the prospective changes — like processing West Virginia-bound letters and flat packages in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania — could increase wait times for local residents and reduce job opportunities locally.

Sam Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union 133, said workers also worry that current USPS numbers might not account for all layoffs in the long term.

In its initial findings, published Jan. 30, USPS said that the transfer of some services to Pennsylvania would “not result in this facility’s closure or career employee layoffs.”

But Holstein said this does not account for the tens of temporary employees who work at the center full time and depend on it for an income. For him, these workers are temporary in name only.

“The Postal Service tries to put icing on this to where it looks sweet, and it looks like it’s going to be a good thing,” he said. “But, ultimately, when their plans are done, it’s not.”

Sean Hargadon, USPS spokesperson for West Virginia, wrote in an email that changing employment conditions for noncareer and pre-career mail workers reflect “the very nature of a flexible workforce category.”

“It is important to note we are providing more opportunities for noncareer employees to become career employees — and, in the past three years, more than 165,000 pre-career employees have been converted to career,” he wrote.

On Tuesday, Holstein and fellow union workers lined downtown Charleston during an informational picket. They told residents about the plans and the public hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Union employees also expressed frustration over the hearing, which was initially slated for Jan. 30 but later postponed with less than a week’s notice.

With the hearing date finalized for Feb. 14, which is Valentine’s Day, Holstein said that union workers have been passing out heart-shaped informational cards to raise awareness for their cause — while keeping with the holiday theme.

“We want to get as many people there tomorrow to show up, listen to what the Postal Service has to say about this, and to voice their opposition,” he said.

**Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comment from USPS officials.

USPS Releases Initial Findings For Charleston Processing Center Without Public Hearing

Without holding the public meeting to receive comment on potential changes to the United States Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center in South Charleston, the organization has released its initial findings that recommend restructuring, updating equipment and some layoffs.

Without holding the public meeting to receive comment on potential changes to the United States Postal Service (USPS) Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) in South Charleston, the organization has released its initial findings that recommend restructuring, updating equipment and some layoffs.

The Mail Processing Facility Review’s (MPFR) initial findings for West Virginia can be viewed here.

“The initial results of the facility review support the business case for keeping the Charleston P&DC open and modernizing the facility as a Local Processing Center (LPC) with simplified processes and standardized layouts,” the initial findings read. “The LPC will also be fitted with state-of-the-art sorting equipment that will improve delivery services. We plan to operate the following sorting equipment in this facility.”

Many have raised concerns that package processing would be moving out of state, and if these recommendations are approved, that will be true.

“Additionally, the business case supports transferring mail processing outgoing operations to the Pittsburgh P&DC and Pennwood Place P&DC. Currently, a majority of mail and packages are destined outside of the Charleston area to the rest of the world.”

The center currently employees about 800 people, but the findings only suggest about 25 will be laid off.

“Due to the transfer of outgoing operations, an estimated net decrease of 24 craft and one management positions are projected once the initiative is completed. All bargaining employee reassignments will be made in accordance with the respective collective bargaining agreements.”

On Jan. 12, 2024, the USPS announced a public meeting for Jan. 30, 2024, but that was postponed by the USPS last Friday, saying the organization needed more time to finalize their recommendations.

A date for the rescheduled meeting has not been released, but the organization said it would be in the next several weeks.

At the time, the Charleston Postal Workers Union Local 133 released a statement that read in part:

“Local union officials have persistently reached out to the postal service in efforts to obtain information they were to release on Jan. 23, 2024, to no avail. Numerous grievances have been filed throughout this MPFR process due to the postal service’s inability to abide by their handbooks and manuals that govern such movement. We will continue to work with our elected officials, the AFL-CIO and affiliate unions in the state to fight the Postal Service plans on moving your mail to Pittsburgh to be processed. The public survey is still available to take, and we encourage everyone to do so.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., released the following statement:

“I have reviewed USPS’s initial findings of the Processing and Distribution Center in Charleston, and while I am glad to see that they have decided to invest in new equipment and upgrades to the facility, I am disappointed to see that they believe that some jobs being transferred to other locations — even if it is less than what was rumored — would be a positive step. I also would have hoped the USPS would have held their public meeting as scheduled on Jan. 30. I still believe that the community deserves to be heard, and I hope that USPS will take that feedback into consideration before any final decisions are made. In the meantime, I urge USPS to listen at the required upcoming public meeting and take into account the importance of this facility to the community as they work to produce their final decisions.”

The press release noted that Capito has remained active on this issue and has spoken personally with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and other local officials on the matter. DeJoy is serving a 10-year term as Postmaster General and was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

She wrote a letter in December 2023 pressing DeJoy for clarity regarding the future of the facility, as well as stressed the importance of the center to West Virginia and its employees. Click here to read the letter.

Capito later expressed her disappointment in the response from USPS, which can be found here.

To comment on the USPS facility, click here to submit written comments. All written comments must be received by Feb. 29, 2024.