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USPS postpones Youngstown plant consolidation to 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close the downtown Youngstown mail-processing center operations at 99 S. Walnut St. has been postponed to next year.
USPS has not determined a date to merge the city’s operation into Cleveland’s facility, originally scheduled for this month.
“The decision to extend implementation of the next phase of the initiative was based upon operational considerations to ensure that the postal service will continue to provide prompt, reliable and predictable service consistent with the published service standards,” USPS spokeswoman Karen Mazurkiewicz said in a statement. “Deferred consolidation activities will resume in 2016.”
The second phase involves moving the incoming-mail-processing operation into the Cleveland processing and distribution center. The outgoing-mail processing was consolidated into Cleveland’s operations as part of the first phase in 2013.
Youngstown’s consolidation was one of 82 to be completed this year, according to Vindicator files. Akron and Toledo also are on the list with the former’s consolidation completed April 18. The Toledo-to-Detroit consolidation also was postponed.
Jim Varner, president of American Postal Workers Local 443, said letters notifying 76 workers at the plant about a 60-day notice of involuntary transfers were rescinded.
Varner said he wants USPS to remove its hold of about a dozen vacancies at the plant, which is now handling third-class mail from Cleveland.
“We’re very busy at this time,” he said.
Mazurkiewicz said USPS is withholding filling job vacancies that are affected by the 2016 consolidation, opting instead to pay overtime to meet the workload.
Varner said he would like to see those holds removed so that the staffing levels are able to keep up with the extra work. He added that some of those positions could be filled by part-time workers who would be laid off permanently before full-time employees move out.
Varner said there are about 20 part-time workers at the plant.
“It’s improper to keep holding those jobs for an indefinite period of time,” he said.
USPS said 125 people are employed at the plant. Those affected by the consolidations will be placed in new positions, which are generally within a 50-mile radius.
U.S. Rep Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, has said he would like to see the plant remain open.
“I am thankful that we were able to avert the closure of the USPS processing center in downtown Youngstown for now – but this fight isn’t over,” he said in a statement. “I am continuing to monitor the situation and will continue to do everything in my power to keep the Youngstown processing center open.”
In 2012 and 2013, the postal service consolidated 141 mail-processing centers to save about $900 million annually.
USPS expects to save $2.1 billion when the consolidations are complete this year.
But Varner said the union wants to see another study done to show the cost savings from consolidating the Youngstown operation.