BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Dozens of people and postal workers from Buffalo and Rochester were outside of the William Street USPS facility for an informational picket on Friday morning with one simple message — save our service.
David Grosskopf Jr., the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers in Buffalo, is fighting to keep Buffalo's USPS Processing and Distribution Center from possibly moving to Rochester.
"This is not what Western New York wants," he said.
7 News was first to tell you last month that some "mail processing functions" could be moved from Buffalo to Rochester.
As part of a $40 billion investment strategy to "upgrade and improve the Postal processing, transportation, and delivery networks," the USPS previously announced it was conducting an evaluation of operations and potential future uses of its Buffalo Processing & Distribution Center.
Grosskopf said there's a chance the move will delay your mail.
"The public is very clear they don't want their mail later, they want their mail sooner, and that's what we're trying to make sure that at least the standard that's happening right now stays," he added.
Members of Buffalo's Common Council also rallied Friday against this possible move.
"This postal service employs men and women from my district and we want these jobs to stay here at this post office," Lovejoy District Council member Bryan Bollman said.
"So if we have people relying not only on medication but apparatus' that they need for health care, to have it be shipped to Rochester to here during inclement weather would just further the service and just further delay their care," Fillmore District Council member Mitch Nowakowski said.
South District Council President Chris Scanlon sent a letter to the U.S. Postmaster General on Friday urging USPS to reconsider any proposals that could have a negative impact on Buffalo's William Street Facility.
"It's imperative that we have this service right here in Buffalo. We're sending letters and medication, paychecks, you name it, to an hour and a half down the road somewhere to be sorted and sent back this way it just makes no sense whatsoever," Scanlon said. "And you hear the postal service talk about, you know, 'We're not going to lose any of these job we just might move them around,' but the community is losing them if they close down this facility."
Grosskopf is urging the community to attend a public meeting next Tuesday to voice their concerns about the possible move. The public meeting will be held on February 27 at 6 p.m. at the Creekside Banquet Facility at 2669 Union Road in Cheektowaga.
"We want Western New York's mail to stay in Western New York," Grosskopf said.
