Published: September 23, 2006 10:48 am         

Postal workers rally

Mayor, other citizens voice support for keeping city mail-sorting facility

CUMBERLAND — Protesters, mostly postal workers, marched up and down Park Street in front of the U.S. Post Office Friday afternoon in opposition to the consolidation of mail-sorting operations from Cumberland to Frederick — nearly 90 miles away.

The demonstration was timed to coincide with a conference at Rocky Gap attended by postal workers from Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and West Virginia. Two busloads of these fellow workers arrived on the scene in support of the Cumberland area objectives.

A number of local citizens also came out in support. Numerous drivers honked their horns as they went by.

Freda Sauter, representing the U.S. Postal Service, who traveled from Baltimore, said there is a study under way nationwide to address shifting the mail volume and to identify areas and consolidate mail processing to make better use of facilities, staff and transportation equipment.

“The study is still ongoing,” said Sauter. “No decision has been made.”

Jim Lawhorn, secretary and treasurer of the American Postal Workers Union, Cumberland Area Local 513, said, “They say the same thing and then shut it down.”

The postal service has been conducting an experiment by sending only Saturday mail from Cumberland to Frederick for processing since June 2005.

“They’ve been doing it for (more than) a year. My God, how long does it take?” Lawhorn said.

Sauter said she has no idea when the study will be completed.

Mayor Lee Fiedler, who also came out in support of keeping the mail in Cumberland, said he’s been getting more and more complaints about slow mail delivery.

“Our city is just about to break open (economically). We need good postal service,” he said.

Fiedler said land is available to expand the Cumberland post office. “We could have an automated facility on the other side of Martin’s,” he said, adding that the quality work force here could handle it.

Steve Albenese, assistant legislative director for the American Postal Workers, said the union has been asking the postal service to “simply have public hearings and then justify what you are doing, but they don’t want to do that. All they want to do is appease big industry and the public takes it in the neck and so do we.”

JoAnn Ryan, resident of Arch Street, displayed a homemade sign saying, “Leave post office as it is, please.”

“I feel it’s terrible there is another business that they’re taking out of town. We need the employment here. I didn’t realize how many (postal employees) work here. There’s 100 just downstairs. That’s a lot of families being uprooted,” said Ryan.

“We’d like to keep our jobs and keep the Cumberland mail here,” said Mike Records, postal employee.

Among the many demonstrators wearing bright yellow T-shirts with the words “Keep Allegany, Garrett, Mineral and Hampshire counties’ mail” was Robin Schaidt, vice president of Cumberland Area Local 513 American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO. “We’re trying to make the public aware of the consolidation the postal service is trying to push,” said Schaidt.

Donna Edwards, secretary and treasurer for the Maryland-D.C. AFL-CIO, who grew up in Cumberland, said, “We’re just workers like everybody else and we provide a service. We need to educate the public” ... how consolidation will ... “make service worse,” she said.

Paula Barker Harless, president of the local union in Charleston, W.Va., also is against “consolidation to save costs. But in the end, it affects the public.”

Jack Davis and four other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, representing Allegany County public employees, also came out in support of the postal employees’ stance against consolidation.

Robert Wade, mail carrier in Cumberland, and Joe Dalonges, maintenance, assisted anyone who wanted to send a letter to their legislators, including those in West Virginia.

Doug Sapp, along with Harold Stephenson, Jimmy Mullens and Al Washington, came from Northern Virginia Local 6803.

Sapp said the situation is similar where they are and they support what Cumberland is doing. They like their jobs in small towns, he said.

Keenan Bell, postal employee from Baltimore, said consolidation “would definitely cut down on service.”

Gloria Hinton of Washington used a bull horn to lead chanting as protesters marched along the sidewalk on Park Street.

Deborah Yackley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Gaithersburg, in an interview Thursday said that the studies examine many aspects of postal operations and are an opportunity for the postal service to find ways to become not only more efficient for its customers, but also to save its customers money.

“No changes have been made, no decision has been reached,” Yackley said of the Cumberland facility.

If any decisions or changes are made, a community meeting will be held to allow citizens to give the postal service feedback, she said.

Local union officials have tried to get the word out about the possible consolidation and loss of nearly 40 jobs since 2004 when a mail-sorting machine was retired and not replaced at the Park Street facility.

W.C. Miner, district manager, customer service and sales for the Baltimore District, recently wrote a letter to the editor assuring area residents that the district “will not allow service to deteriorate.”

In that August letter, he stated that no jobs would be lost.

“Affected employees will be given a number of options, including taking different positions,” he wrote. “Service will not be negatively affected if any changes occur.”

Yackley said the Baltimore District, which includes Cumberland, has the best service in the nation and the Postal Service is committed to that service.

Cumberland postmaster Ed Peterson was on the scene of the demonstration Friday but declined any comment.

Alison Bunting can be reached at abunting@times-news.com. Maria Smith contributed to this story.