By Roger Adkins, HD Media
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A proposal by the United States Postal Service to move operations from a Charleston facility continues to draw concern from state and local officials.
The USPS is conducting a review of its 800-employee Charleston Processing and Distribution Center at Southridge Center, 1000 Centre Way. The review will include examining the possibility of transferring some of the Charleston facility’s mail processing operations to two centers in Pennsylvania.
Postal Service Processing and Distribution centers in Pittsburgh and Warrendale, Pennsylvania, would assume some of the Charleston center’s work if the review identifies operating efficiencies sufficient to justify the transfer, according to a Nov. 22 notice of intent to conduct the review.
The American Postal Workers Union is planning an informational picket from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the U.S. Post Office, 1002 Lee St., and from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the South Charleston Community Center, 601 Jefferson Road.
The APWU has 490 members and represents many of the clerks who work at the facility. The focus of the pickets will be on creating public awareness of the USPS plan and how changes at the facility could have a broad impact on the area, said Tim Holstein, president of APWU Local 133.
“We’re just trying to get this out to every venue and through every avenue that we can,” Holstein said.
