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.”
On Thursday, the news that the facility would retain its current functions came as a relief. The center will also get an investment of $22.8 million.
After months of uncertainty, the U.S. Postal Service will not downgrade its South Charleston mail processing facility.
The Postal Service’s plan to convert the Charleston processing and distribution center into a local mail sorting hub and send some of its current responsibilities, and potentially workers, to Pennsylvania, stirred anxiety among state and local leaders.
On Thursday, the news that the facility would retain its current functions came as a relief. The center will also get an investment of $22.8 million.
U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito opposed the changes and engaged directly with the Postal Service on the issue, including Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Kanawha County commissioners and Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin thanked the senators, as well as American Postal Workers Union Local 133.
Tim Holstein, vice president of the local and state postal workers union, said there would be some slight changes at the facility, but workers now have certainty before the holidays.
“Congratulations, West Virginia. We won,” Holstein said.
On this West Virginia Morning, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced last week it would postpone delivery network changes that would downsize the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center. But this news hasn’t remedied months-long tensions between local workers and USPS officials. As Jack Walker reports, union representatives are now filing grievance claims for some workers.
On this West Virginia Morning, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced last week it would postpone delivery network changes that would downsize the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center. But this news hasn’t remedied months-long tensions between local workers and USPS officials. As Jack Walker reports, union representatives are now filing grievance claims for some workers.
Also, in this show, throughout the year, Kentucky sees a transient workforce that calls the Commonwealth home. The seasonal migrant workers participate in a variety of jobs. Stu Johnson of WEKU looks at some of the picture in Fayette County.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Chris Schulz produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
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 announced Monday it would pause its implementation of further mail network changes until January 2025, which could impact a mail processing facility in West Virginia.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is postponing mail delivery network changes nationwide, which could affect the proposed downsizing of its only full mail processing facility in West Virginia.
Last month, USPS announced it would follow through on plans to move certain mailing operations to facilities in the Pittsburgh area. This followed months of union protests, alongside concerns from residents and lawmakers that the move could increase mail delivery times or negatively affect postal workers.
The Charleston Processing and Distribution Center’s potential downsizing is part of a ten-year plan to restructure USPS operations nationally that has drawn increasing scrutiny from elected officials.
Earlier this month, 26 United States senators — including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. — penned a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy expressing concern over the “irrevocable changes” underway through the national plan.
“I’m concerned about job loss, and also about delivery and what the accuracy and timeliness will be with all the mail being processed in Pennsylvania,” Capito said during a virtual press briefing last Thursday. “And the loss of jobs. Whether people can move, we want to keep them in West Virginia.”
As many as 90 postal workers in West Virginia would be affected by the proposed changes, through a combination of facility transfers and layoffs.
“It is essential we understand the full impact of these proposed changes, especially on our hardworking postal employees, before moving forward on their implementation,” Manchin said in a Tuesday press release.
Previously, DeJoy said the national plan was “correcting for decades of haphazard decision making and neglect to our physical infrastructure network.”
But USPS announced it was changing course Monday. DeJoy said further facility downsizing plans would not be implemented until January 2025, and promised to notify Congress of any further consolidation plans, and to slow the pace of implementation of facility changes nationwide.
Still, Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-area American Postal Workers Union Local 133, said workers have not received clear communication on the future of their facility.
Holstein said that he and union workers worry that if USPS only pauses “further” consolidation plans, those that have already been approved — like the plans for the Charleston facility — could still be implemented.
“There is uncertainty whether the changes will be implemented,” he said. “Look at that word ‘further.’ Does that mean the ones planned, or does that mean the ones that are already in progress?”
Holstein said the South Charleston workers are awaiting further communications from USPS to verify how USPS’s decision will impact their facility. Susan Wright, USPS spokesperson for West Virginia, did not respond to email requests for comment on this story.
As many as 90 postal workers could have their jobs affected by the downgrading of a West Virginia mail facility. This figure is higher than union representatives anticipated.
As many as 90 postal workers could have their jobs affected by the downgrading of a West Virginia mail facility — a figure notably higher than union representatives previously anticipated.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Tuesday that it would carry out plans to transfer outgoing mail processing from the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center to facilities in Pennsylvania.
The decision followed months of deliberation, as well as intense pushback from union workers and state officials concerned with the fate of West Virginia’s only full USPS processing center.
Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union Local 133, has been an outspoken opponent of the downgrade.
He said union workers worried that more employees would be impacted than the USPS initially estimated. “Multiple members could possibly be relocated or moved out of state, possibly uprooting families and lives,” he told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in February.
When the final report came out on Tuesday, Holstein said workers’ fears were actualized.
In January, the USPS released an initial report that estimated changes to the facility would bring a net decrease of 24 postal workers.
At a first glance, that number is similar to the net decrease of 23 postal workers from the final plans released in April. But the final report also included a breakdown omitted from the initial report.
This laid bare the full extent of changes in store for workers, Holstein said.
Forty-one career employees — 28 career mail processing clerks and 13 career maintenance workers — could be transferred out of the Charleston facility.
In calculating a net decrease, the USPS offset this number with employees gained at the Pittsburgh-area facilities. But Holstein said transferring facilities is not a simple process, and that it might not be a viable option for some employees.
“It’s very difficult to uproot your family and your life, especially if you’ve lived in a particular area, and move to another place that has a higher cost of living,” he said.
The report also said that 25 postal support employees and 24 mail handler assistants could lose their positions. These are non-career roles, which lack the protections of career positions and can be terminated by the USPS.
Positions At Stake
Position
Number Of Workers Affected
Eligible To Be Laid Off?
Mail Processing Clerks
28
No
Postal Support Employees
25
Yes
Mail Handler Assistants
24
Yes
Maintenance Workers
13
No
According to the United States Postal Service, a total of 90 workers at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center could have their positions affected in the months ahead. Graphic Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Together, that means a total of 90 career and non-career workers could be impacted through transfers and layoffs, respectively.
Holstein said that by providing just one number — the net decrease — the USPS misrepresented changes to the facility. The net figure was nearly four times lower than the cumulative number of positions impacted.
In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, USPS Spokesperson Susan Wright did not address these claims.
However, she wrote that numbers included in the initial report were based on USPS estimates at the time.
Wright also wrote that “all bargaining employee reassignments will be made in accordance with the respective collective bargaining agreements.”
Still, Holstein said that the release of the final report reignited concerns over USPS transparency among workers.
While the net employee decrease was included prominently on the report’s third page, the full breakdown was included pages into the report, with terms and figures Holstein described as convoluted.
Hours after the report came out, Holstein said he had to pull out a pencil and perform arithmetic to fully grasp the number of positions affected by the downgrade.
“Once you get deeper into the math, you’re finding out that they’re using a net combined number that makes it more palatable for the public … in hopes that we’re not going to start digging into the numbers,” he said.
Union representatives were not alone in expressing disapproval of the final plans. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., released a statement Tuesday expressing concern over how many workers could be impacted.
“I am disappointed that USPS has decided to move forward with plans to shrink the role of the Charleston facility,” she said. “It is also very disappointing to see the number of jobs impacted by these changes has grown from USPS’s initial findings.”
While the USPS describes their plans as final, Holstein said he and fellow workers will continue to challenge them within the boundaries of their positions.
“The fight is not over,” he said. “Until we start to see a relocation or the non-career employees let go, we’re still on the fight. We’re still going to give it 100 percent.”
Tim Holstein said he had to do handwritten arithmetic to understand the full extent of staff changes at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center. Photo Credit: Tim Holstein/American Postal Workers Union Local 133
