Postal Workers Protest Shutdown

Postal workers are protesting plans to shut down the mail sorting center that serves all of central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

[fred]

is that going to reduce services or what about the price of stamps???????

[concerned employee]

I work at the cville plant and this move would greatly effect the mail. All mail would have to go to richmond instead of staying local,(adding a couple delivery days), not to mention all the employees that work at the cville post office that would no longer be servicing local businesses, how would that effect our already bad economy??

[thinking free]

Since I stand accused of having an opinion on everything I wouldn't won't to disappoint. So, having a PO box downtown I frequently have the opportunity to stand in line forever to get waited on, and now they've closed the site on sat&sun so I can't even get my mail, and all this knowing these employees are part of the postal union that pays far more than the average employer in this town, I could give a rats behind about problems in the PO.

[I Left Cville Socialism]

Guess that Postal Workers Union didn't play buddy buddy with Obama.

Concerned Employee, Nobody said anything about the PO closing, but the sorting center. I'm sure there will still be a counter for local businesses and private citizens to use.

Maybe the USPS could learn some lessons from FEDEX and UPS.

...and remember folks, some people want this level of quality government service to happen to your healthcare!

[Local girl]

Wow, thinking free, because the service you receive is bad you don't care if it gets worse? Explain that logic to me? I personally would hate to see the sorting center close. We do have excellent mail service here, and I'd hate for it to get worse. And comparing Fedex and UPS to USPS is useless. Have you ever tried mailing a letter through one of them? Would you like to pay a couple bucks per letter? Having to route all local mail through Richmond seems ridiculous.

[wondering]

All mail would have to go to richmond instead of staying local,(adding a couple delivery days<<<

I suppose there is some logic to the above; but if a two hour drive adds a two day delay,there may be an efficiency problem. Of course I am not well versed in the routines of mail handling and there may well be intricacies with which I am not familiar.

[wise one]

What it all boils down to is MONEY. The Charlottesville MAIL DON'T MEAN NOTHING TO THE POSTAL MANAGERS. If they want to save money all they got to do is shut down on wekends and make the ones getting mail on the side of the road by carries pay for that service like you have to pay for a mail box in side the Post Office area. Getting our mail late isn't going to help any just makes it worst. This is why a lot of people have gone to online now is because of POSTAL MAIL getting to them slow and now it is evening going to be slower getting to you. SAVE THE MONEY AND HURT THE PEOPLE. WAY TO GO POSTAL SERVICE.

[Im Ya Huckleberry]

Well,well,well, welcome to the real world postal workers. I know it's just not right that you should lose your jobs while the internet messaging business is booming. Maybe you can get a job with Facebook, but like most workers in this country, you won't have all those cushy benefits the union demands from employers.

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE EFFICIENT.(Disclaimer:Does not apply to the government)

[Ross]

USPS lost $2.8 billion in 2008. This is supposed to be a ‘for profit’ corporation, not a charity. It is about time USPS began to squeeze inefficiencies out of its operation. They have lost both revenue and volume. When a company loses volume, it makes sense to downsize its network.

If USPS changes its operation in an intelligent manner, it should save money.…and we as tax payers might see less of our money squandered.

Hopefully, Congress will force AMTRAK to follow this example.

[AccountabilityPl ease]

concerned employee wrote:

I work at the cville plant and this move would greatly effect the mail. All mail would have to go to richmond instead of staying local,(adding a couple delivery days), not to mention all the employees that work at the cville post office that would no longer be servicing local businesses, how would that effect our already bad economy??

----------
Apparently, what is happening is that we can no longer receive the quality of service we receive for the price we pay. Therefore, services will be cut, and 68 people will be unemployed.

Hey, if you are enjoying this one--WAIT UNTIL YOUR GOVERNMENT MANAGES YOUR HEALTH CARE--and CUTS YOUR SERVICES!

[Concerned Citizen]

The delivery system improved drastically with the distribution center. Had much rather see Saturday delivery stopped or better yet close some of the many small post offices located at every crossroads. Keep the distribution center!

[John]

Ross wrote:

USPS lost $2.8 billion in 2008. This is supposed to be a ‘for profit’ corporation, not a charity. It is about time USPS began to squeeze inefficiencies out of its operation. They have lost both revenue and volume. When a company loses volume, it makes sense to downsize its network.
If USPS changes its operation in an intelligent manner, it should save money.…and we as tax payers might see less of our money squandered.
Hopefully, Congress will force AMTRAK to follow this example.

Sorry, but there is not a chance that our Government will do anything to begin actually saving money. I will miss getting my mail sooner. Nobody should be surprised that this is happening. With the loss of funding (lack of money), accompanied with the ever increasing cost of postage, the United States Postal Service is a shining example of how NOT to run a business. I constantly receive the wrong mail and discover that my mail is frequently delivered to the wrong address. I once mailed two letters on the same day, one to England and one across town. The people in England got theirs first.

[sancville]

Although you hate to see anyone loosing their job in this economy, it is a common sense decision. Our taxes are ridiculously high as it is. The Post Office has lost money consistently since UPS and Fed Ex showed they could make mailing/shipping more conveint for the consumer. In any business if you can reduce production costs with minimal loss in services it has to be done. It is actually nice to see the Government making an intelligent business decision for once!

[ActionJackson]

Gee...isn't the Postal Service another government entity?? And I am sure the Union fat cats are going to cut back on their income in order to help their fellow employees..NOT! I do think the current rate for mailing a letter is still a good deal but folks e-mail has been eroding the snail mail for some time. Your union boss's should have seen that..assuming they have any business sense.
Another gee...can't wait for government health care. WAKE UP AMERICA...there is a socialist agenda in the White House!!!

[concerned employee]

Okay we can bad mouth the postal service but who do you think UPS gets to mail their letter/ flyers, duh??? Closing the processing plant WILL affect the mail because after recieving it at the window, where will it go?? To Richmond. Yeah maybe the economy isn't the greatest, but the point we are trying to make is that this move will only make it worse! It makes no sense. We should want things to get better not worse. The people making these decisions are NOT the people actually working the mail-think about it...

[concerned employee]

One important thing thats not being mentioned..The facility in Richmond(actually it's Sandston) is a brand new builing that last I heard cost the Postal Service more than 15 million dollars. They are not consilidating what they already had, they are moving it to a BRAND NEW BUILDING...so if we are doing this cause the p.o. is loosing money then where did the money for this facility come from??? So now the PO is trying to justify this new builing by making local delivery service worse?????

[Misunderstood]

I dont understand the comments about the cost of a stamp what else can you pay less then a dollar for and have it shipped anywhere in the US. As far as the benfits have any of you done this job?? Its not a easy job. The carrier that delivers your mail gets to the post office at 5am and most often delivers your mail around 2 or 3 in the afternoon only to return to the post office to stack the next day flyers. Its long hours and a 6 day a week job. Instead of complaining about there benefits why dont you apply for a job its one of the few companys that will hire you with only a high school diploma

[sancville]

It is a moot point what the new facility costs because the up-keep and upgrades required to keep an old building up and running would eventually cost more. Besides, consolidating into one facility- cutting ten million dollars in operating costs per year- itself pays for that building within two years. This simply comes down to labor costs. And as much as the Unions don't like it situations like these are the result when you a Government or Business has to pay over inflated labor costs.

[Ross]

concerned employee wrote:

Okay we can bad mouth the postal service but who do you think UPS gets to mail their letter/ flyers, duh??? Closing the processing plant WILL affect the mail because after recieving it at the window, where will it go?? To Richmond. Yeah maybe the economy isn't the greatest, but the point we are trying to make is that this move will only make it worse! It makes no sense. We should want things to get better not worse. The people making these decisions are NOT the people actually working the mail-think about it...

...make things better at what cost?

[concerned employee]

sancville wrote:

It is a moot point what the new facility costs because the up-keep and upgrades required to keep an old building up and running would eventually cost more. Besides, consolidating into one facility- cutting ten million dollars in operating costs per year- itself pays for that building within two years. This simply comes down to labor costs. And as much as the Unions don't like it situations like these are the result when you a Government or Business has to pay over inflated labor costs.

Like there arent going to be costs for the upkeep of the new building...Odviously YOU dont have a family and a life here. I work hard for the postal service and I understand the economy is bad but when I see something stupid I say so. I do not want to relocate my life and family, I have grown up in this area and my children have this far.WE are going to suffer from this rediculous decission but the community as a whole will get the worst of it, watch and see!!!!!!