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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
A West Virginia postal carrier who pleaded guilty to altering mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots was sentenced to five years’ probation Monday.
Thomas Cooper was charged in May 2020 after eight mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots had their party affiliations altered. He pleaded guilty last July.
Cooper, 48, of Dry Fork, held a postal contract to pick up mail in the three towns in which the voters live and delivered the forms in April 2020 to the Pendleton County clerk, according to a federal affidavit.
An investigation by the secretary of state’s office found five of the ballot requests were changed from Democrat to Republican with a black ink pen, the affidavit said.
Bennie Cogar, a state attorney general’s office investigator who conducted the probe on behalf of the secretary of state’s office, said in the affidavit that the Pendleton County clerk called some of the voters after receiving the requests because she knew they were not Republicans. The clerk then contacted the secretary of state’s office to report the alterations.
On the other three requests, the voters’ party was not changed. However, in addition to the “Republican” box originally checked in blue ink, the word “Republican” was later circled in black ink, the affidavit said.
Cooper admitted in an interview with Cogar and a postal inspector that he changed some of the requests he picked up from the Onega post office from Democrat to Republican.
According to the affidavit, when he was then asked about the other requests, Cooper said, “I’m not saying no,” but if the requests were picked up along his postal route, “I would take the blame.” Cooper was then asked if he was “just being silly” and he replied he did it “as a joke” and that he didn’t know those voters.
Cooper was sentenced in federal court in Elkins for attempted election fraud and injury to the mail.
State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Cooper’s conviction and sentencing “should serve as a strong warning to anyone else who feels tempted to commit election fraud.”
Absentee ballot rules were relaxed last year to make voting easier and safer during the coronavirus pandemic. Absentee ballot applications were mailed to all registered voters in West Virginia to encourage mail-in voting for the June 2020 primary election. For the November general election, all state voters were allowed to fill out an absentee ballot application online.
