Planned closing of Youngstown mail center will affect whole community, protesters say

YOUNGSTOWN

The tentative July shuttering of the U.S. Postal Service ail-processing and distribution center at 99. S. Walnut St. will have many effects on the community, unions representing postal workers say.

On Friday, the American Postal Workers Union Local 443, National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 385, the Ohio Rural Letter Carriers Association and Mail Handlers Local 304 joined with others at the Covelli Centre for the APWU’s National Day of Action to tell Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to stop eliminating postal services.

“The closing of these additional plants will drive away business and cause irreparable damage of the postal service,” said Henry Gomez, president of NALC Branch 385, which represents approximately 700 workers in the Mahoning Valley.

On the same day as the National Day of Action, Donahue announced his retirement to come in February.

The unions, which have support from both sides of Congress, suggest a one-year moratorium on the 82 anticipated consolidations in fiscal year 2015. They also would like to see a new study done to determine if the consolidations are, in fact, cost effective.

Read more about the plan and dispute in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.