Postal Union Protests Distribution Center Grand Opening

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- The U.S. Postal Service held a grand opening celebration on Thursday for its new $82 million processing and distribution center in Scarborough, but not everyone was in a festive mood.

Postal officials said the state-of-the-art facility -- which has been in operation since July -- will replace the Forest Avenue center in Portland, as well as a number of satellite facilities in the region.

Across the road from the center on Thursday, members of the American Postal Workers Union Local 458 held an informational picket to draw attention to what they said has been the mistreatment of workers at the facility.

Local 458 president Scott Adams told News 8, "It's not been a smooth transition to this facility. We're completely understaffed. They've taken jobs from employees, replacing them with temporary help. They've treated us terribly in the past six months."

Postal service spokeswoman Christine Dugas responded, "The reality was, there were some shift changes. But no one lost their job -- no one."

A number of high-profile guests, including U.S. Sens. Olympia Snow and Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, were scheduled to appear at Thursday's ceremony but backed out at the last minute, saying they did not want to cross the picket line.