Covelli rally targets USPS cuts

By Kalea Hall | November 15, 2014 at 12:01a.m.

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

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.

USPS consolidated 141 mail-processing facilities in 2012 and 2013. The postal service expects those moves to generate an additional $750 million in annual savings.

The unions say the real problem is a 2006 congressional mandate to pre-fund future retirees’ health care benefits for the next 75 years. The law requires the service to pay $5.5 billion to $5.8 billion per year through 2016. USPS reported Friday that the “legislative burdens and constraints” contributed to a $5.5 billion net loss in fiscal 2014, which ended Sept. 30.

“No other businesses or government agency has been placed under that burden,” said Jim Varner, president of APWU Local 443. “This is a manufactured crisis. Congress created this mess and we are here to fix it.”

The “mess,” according to an economic impact study commissioned by the National APWU, shows 261 direct and indirect jobs being lost in the city from the consolidation of the Youngstown operation to Cleveland. It is estimated a loss of $15.9 million in total labor income associated with the jobs. Local governments, according to the report, will experience a loss of nearly $290,000 in property tax and sales tax.

“It will virtually eliminate overnight delivery,” Gomez said.

As a letter carrier, Gomez can remember being able to accept mail from senior citizens and assuring them that the bill will be at its destination the next day.

“We can’t say that anymore,” he said.

This is because the mail will be taken from Youngstown to Cleveland and then back, he said. A bulk of the operations in Youngstown already has started to be consolidated in Cleveland. All of the outgoing mail is now processed in Cleveland. The only mail processing in Youngstown still is the final sorting step for letters and large envelopes, or flats, delivered by letter carriers in Youngstown, said David Van Allen of USPS corporate communications.

Girard Mayor Jim Melfi also was in attendance at the gathering Friday to explain how the closing will impact the entire Mahoning Valley — not just the city.

“What matters is we try to save every job and create every job,” Melfi said. “And this is why anyone in position would support such action.”

A total of 126 people are employed at the Youngstown plant, according to USPS. However, that does not mean all of those positions will be affected by the closure. USPS has said it is committed to finding “landing spots” for employees, which generally means within a 50-mile radius of Youngstown, but there are exceptions.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and 49 other senators have urged the prevention of the planned closing and consolidation of several USPS mail-processing facilities, including Youngstown’s. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, also is in support of the unions and had a representative present at Friday’s event.