Closure talk draws ire, protest

Columbus site not on short list for review for possible consolidation

BY ANDREA V. HERNANDEZ

Staff Writer

Photo by Mike Haskey/Ledger-Enquirer Cynthia Catewood hands out flyers to a patron entering the U.S. Post Office in downtown Columbus on Thursday. Gatewood and other members of the American Postal Workers Uninon, Local 118, were staging an informational picket there, as well as the main post office on Millgen Road, to alert people to the possibility of the closure of the Columbus mail processing facility.

More than two dozen postal service workers picketed in front of two Columbus post offices Thursday morning, airing concern over possible closure of the Milgen Road mail processing center as part of a nationwide United States Postal Service consolidation plan.

As part of a national day of union picketing, postal service union workers handed out informational leaflets outside of the Milgen Road and downtown post offices.

"We just didn't think it was fair, that they (USPS) would try to consolidate us without giving us notice and not letting the public know what was going on," said Shirley Garris, president of the American Postal Workers Union's local Columbus branch.

Last September, Columbus showed up on a list of 139 mail processing centers across the country that USPS may study for possible consolidation -- either for facility closure or moving certain operations elsewhere. USPS released the list to the public in July after union requests, and the union posted it on its Web site.

USPS attorney Michael Tidwell said the list is tentative and was compiled as part of the USPS's realignment plan to examine the mail process and "eliminate inefficiencies built up over the years."

USPS is now studying 41 facilities on that list. Tidwell said the complete process could take up to seven years to evaluate all sites for possible consolidation. So far, no sites have been shut down. One plant in Newark, N.J., has moved its mail processing operations to another nearby facility, Tidwell said.

Neither Columbus nor any other Georgia facilities are on the initial list of 41.

"What's more likely to happen is certain operations will be taken from some plants and moved to another," Tidwell said.

In Columbus' case, mail processing operations could be shifted to Macon.

A mail processing center in Albany also appeared on the list of 139 facilities, with possible consolidation to the mail processing center in Macon as well.

Donna Ricks, USPS spokeswoman for the south Georgia district, said if USPS consolidates any facilities, it would be "an entire step-by-step process to consolidate, which would include a public-input process."

Local unions and the larger public would be notified if a facility in their area is next up for study, Tidwell said.

As for postal service workers at those facilities, if consolidation indeed occurred, they could be transferred to another facility, Tidwell said. In the Columbus center's case, that would be Macon -- more than 90 miles away.

Union workers said this consolidation could cause delays in mail delivery.

"If you mail a letter to your next door neighbor, it will have to go to Macon and then have to come back here to get delivered, so there will be delays in mail," Clive Cannon, an electronic technician at the Milgen Road location and the Georgia maintenance craft director for the American Postal Workers Union's local branch, said Wednesday.

Tidwell said there may be an impact, but whether service would be worse or better -- or no change to service at all -- was undetermined without a comprehensive study.