Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The United States Postal Service will not move forward with its plan to relocate mail processing services from Buffalo's William Street facility to Rochester.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer calls this a victory for Buffalo and the Western New York region alike.
"I called Postmaster [Louis] DeJoy seven times and said, 'You cannot do this. I won't let you do this. You always asked me to help or help the post office out, well, now you've got to help us,'" said Sen. Schumer on Friday during a Zoom call with the assembled media. "Not a single employee will be changed, we keep them all. No equipment will be changed, we keep them all. So it's great news, not only for the workers there at the Post Office, but anyone in the Buffalo region, the Western New York region that uses the mail."
Sen. Schumer adds that Postmaster General DeJoy committed this to him last week on the phone, but he waited to release this information until he had it in writing.
"In 2011, they were going to do this once before, I stopped it then. And I promised the workers and the people of Western New York that if they tried it again, I would stop it, and we have done that. So it's victory, victory, victory," Sen. Schumer said. "The Post Office is safe, the workers are safe. The speediness of our mail will not deteriorate any further under this stupid plan that would have sent all our mail to Rochester to be sorted. That's not happening."
Friday's decision comes after weeks of pushback from workers at the William Street USPS facility, that included a contentious public meeting in Cheektowaga between workers, customers and USPS officials.
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President of the local branch of the American Postal Workers Union, Frank Resetartis says the members of the union are very happy and elated by the news of Friday's announcement.
"When anyone starts with a flawed concept or a bad idea, and there are people willing to stand up to that bad idea and have the intestinal fortitude to remain steadfast and object to it, then usually flawed ideas, bad ideas go away. In this particular case, there were so many facets to this that rose to a crescendo, starting from the general public," said Resetartis in an interview with WBEN.
"Anyone who resides in zip codes, 140..., 141..., 143..., 142..., 147..., that large geographic area - those people, they came forward and they voiced their objection. They came out to our informational picket, which was huge in front of the main post office, they came out to the public meeting, and they wrote letters, they sent emails. And the general public came out in force, objecting to this bad idea, affecting the mail in those zip codes."
Resetarits understands the importance of having the backing of local politicians and other levels of local government. However, he knows that as new leadership comes into play with the Postal Service, the idea of this plan resurfacing is always a possibility.
"This all comes from higher level management officials in Washington. This is not the local officials making these decisions. Every time you get a new Postmaster General, or some new higher level people, they come up with ideas. So as long as there's always going to be new higher level people in Washington, this concept could always come back," he said. M"aybe it'll take another decade, it took over a decade since 2011, but I always say with the Postal Service, you sleep with one eye open."
Among the local leaders pleased with Friday's announcement from the Postal Service includes Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski, who understands very well what this development means for the people of Western New York.
"Not only will we have our postal service not delayed, we also won't have jobs moved out of the region. I'm thrilled with all the union members and supporters and elected officials that were able to really fight this back so that it never is to return again," said Nowakowski in an interview with WBEN.
Nowakowski knows this move from Washington was just an attempt to start phasing out the William Street location for the Post Office.
"When you think about it, we would have had all of our mail processed in Rochester. If you wanted to mail a letter down the street, it would then go to Rochester to be processed to come back around the corner. Not only does that not make sense, but think about the waste of fuel and driver costs, and workers to be able to do that," Nowakowski said. "So, really, this is just using our common sense and keeping our services right here in the City of Buffalo and in Western New York."
Fellow U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand echoed Sen. Schumer's sentiments of Friday's announcement, saying:
“Following my direct advocacy to Postmaster General DeJoy, USPS has decided to keep mail processing operations at the Buffalo Processing and Distribution Center. They made the right decision – this will make sure that jobs stay in the local workforce and that Western New Yorkers will continue to get their mail on time. I’m proud to have secured this win for Buffalo.”
In addition, Congressman Nick Langworthy (NY-23) also applauds Friday's decision by the USPS to not move forward with the proposed move of the Buffalo mail processing facility’s operations, saying:
“The U.S. Postal Service’s decision to maintain current operations at the William Street Mail Processing Facility is the right move for our region. I was proud to advocate for our postal workers and the communities they serve throughout this process, keeping jobs in our area and ensuring that our constituents continue to receive efficient and reliable mail service without disruption. I want to thank the USPS for considering the concerns raised by myself and others, and ultimately making the decision that best serves the interests of Western New York.”