WASHINGTON – Postal union officials and Buffalo-area politicians are strongly objecting to a U.S. Postal Service proposal to move some operations from its William Street mail processing facility in Buffalo to a similar building in Rochester – even though no one knows exactly what that proposal is.
A day after the Postal Service announced an upcoming public meeting about the plan, officials complained that the agency has offered too few details about it.
Frank Resetarits, president of the American Postal Workers Union local in Buffalo as well as its statewide operation, on Wednesday termed the Postal Service’s description of the plan as “vague, sprinkled in with a heavy dose of deception.”
State Sen. Timothy Kennedy, a Buffalo Democrat, said: “I think it’s totally misguided. And I think it undermines the credibility of the United States Postal Service.”
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And Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, saying: “The people of Western New York deserve full transparency from the USPS – and I am concerned that the present lack of full transparency is leaving our communities in the dark about the potential impacts of USPS’s proposed plan.”
In its announcement about the upcoming public meeting, the Postal Service on Tuesday said it is considering converting the Buffalo facility from a regional processing and distribution center into a local processing center.
“The Buffalo LPC will be a critical node to the unified movement of mail and packages across the regional processing and transportation ecosystem,” the notice said. “The facility will offer expanded and streamlined package processing capabilities in the local market and new workplace amenities for USPS employees. Additionally, the business case supports transferring some mail processing operations to the Rochester P&DC.”
The proposal is part of the agency’s decadelong “Delivering for America” plan aimed at making postal delivery more efficient. But the Postal Service announcement included no specifics on what would change under its plan.
“Business mail entry, Post Office, station and branch retail services are not expected to change, and delivery services will be unaffected throughout this review,” the announcement said – without mentioning what would happen to those services after the review is completed.
“The evaluation is a first step in the Postal Service review and investment process in this facility and will not result in this facility’s closure or career employee layoffs,” the Postal Service said – without saying what could happen to local Postal Service jobs at the end of the review.
Asked for more details, Postal Service spokesman Mark Lawrence said via email: “We have no further information beyond the news release at this time.”
But lawmakers want much more information.
“Right now, our postal workers and the public feel left in the dark, so we need a whole lot more info from the USPS ASAP on any proposal to alter mail operations,” Schumer said.
Rep. Nick Langworthy, a Republican who represents many Buffalo suburbs as well as the Southern Tier, also said he objected to the Postal Service proposal.
"There are 700 jobs at stake in our community, and this move raises serious concerns about the timeliness and reliability of essential mail services like prescription medication, payments, and other deliveries," Langworthy said. "I look forward to sitting down with USPS officials soon to advocate for keeping this facility in Western New York."
And Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, on Tuesday sent a letter to DeJoy objecting to any changes and asking that the proposal be abandoned.
“I am concerned that the United States Postal Service is trying to sneak this by Buffalo,” Higgins said.
Resetarits, the union official, said he had no idea how the Postal Service plan would affect local mail delivery or jobs.
“We can’t make any determination on the impact on the workforce because we don’t know what mail, what percentage of the mail, would be going” to Rochester, Resetarits said, adding that it could be “anywhere from 10% to 100%.”
But Kennedy said he feared that the proposal, whatever it is, would have a negative impact not only on Buffalo-area mail delivery but also the economy.
“The last thing our community needs is concern about our ability to get packages from point A to point B,” Kennedy said. “It’s just ludicrous. It’s bad for our economy. It’s bad for our city. And we’re not going to stand for it.”
The proposal comes 12 years after the Postal Service launched an attempt to close the William Street facility altogether and move its operations to Rochester. The agency eventually dropped that plan amid pressure from lawmakers and the public.
The Postal Service said it will hold a public meeting to discuss the proposal at 3 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Creekside Banquet Facility, 2669 Union Road, Cheektowaga. The agency said it will release a summary of the results of its review at least a week before that meeting.
In addition, the Postal Service is seeking public comments on the proposal. Members of the public can submit their comments on an online form. Comments must be received by Feb. 15.
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