Jonathan Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, rallies the crowd and lead chants such as “We are the 99 percent.”
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Postal workers gathered in front of the stately James A. Farley Post Office in Chelsea on Nov. 14 to rally against mail delays and the shuttering of mail processing centers.
Cold could not deter the unions that joined for what was termed a “National Day of Action” as similar assemblies were happening concurrently across the country. Nov. 14 coincided with the last public meeting of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service (USPS).
On the steps of the Farley building, between W. 31st and 33rd Sts. on Eighth Ave., the workers, union representatives and supporters wore bright blue shirts that read “Stop Delaying America’s Mail” over their winter jackets.
The day did offer a surprise: the Board’s announcement on Friday that Postmaster General and USPS CEO Patrick R. Donahoe will resign in February and that Megan J. Brennan will replace him.
Signs featured a picture of Donahoe, with the words “Resigned for crimes against the public and the postal service.”
As of Jan. 5, 2015, the USPS plans to eliminate overnight delivery and close 82 processing and delivering centers, said Paul Hogrogian, 62, the president of the local 300 chapter of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.
The closings will delay the deliveries of necessities such as medicines, along with and bills and payments, said Hogrogian, who lives in New Jersey and works at the post office at 111 John St. in the Financial District.
“Once they make the service changes, you can’t put humpty dumpty together again,” said John Dirzius, 63, the New York National Officer with the American Postal Workers Union.
Dirzius, who lives in Connecticut, likened it to a pizza joint saying it will deliver its pies in three days. The USPS is “imploding from the inside” because of manufactured reasons, he said. The problems began in 2006, he noted, and stemmed from making the USPS prepay for its pension and healthcare costs.
“They are good jobs, decent jobs,” that are being lost, said Dirzius.
Sharon Suchomel, 53, has worked for the postal service and been a union member for 17 years. The New Jersey resident works at the processing center in Newburgh, New York, one that is slated to close. Suchomel has been through this once before, she said, after a different center she worked at closed.
Kevin Walsh, 55, is the director of organization for the New York Metro Area Postal Union and has been a member for 36 years. Walsh kicked off the rally with chants such as “Whose post office?” with the response “Our post office,” or “The people’s post office.” “They say cutback, we say fight back,” and “Stop delaying America’s mail” were heard on Eighth Ave. as people walked by.
Walsh, who resides in Long Island, introduced the various speakers, and had a bit of Matthew McConaughey’s mojo as he said “alright.”
“I love the post office. I love serving the American people,” said Jonathan Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union. “We work hard and the postal service acts like we’re not needed.”
Smith led the crowd in a chant of “We are the 99 percent” and got some members to exclaim, “Preach, brother,” while he discussed the USPS problems.
“Why ask the customer to pay more and give them less?” Smith said,
For J. Renee Bost, 50, the gathering was not only about the postal workers but also about the American people and the mail delays that will be forthcoming. Bost, who lives in New Jersey and is Smith’s assistant, explained how a letter that is posted in the Bronx to somewhere else in the borough must be routed to Manhattan before it goes back to the Bronx.
“That’s crazy,” she said. “We’re just trying to stop it before it gets out of hand.”
Members of othear unions, including the Screen Actors Guild, came to show solidarity with the postal workers.
Bost has been a part of the New York Metro Area Postal Union for 25 years. She said that membership is decreasing and cited the fact that when she began at the post office, one could work part-time and get benefits, but now one must wait to receive them.
The union, located at 350 W. 31 St., was against the closure of the Old Chelsea Station at 217 West 18th St., which was kept open due to community activism with elected officials support. At the rally, a speaker touched upon the threatened closure of the Old Chelsea Station last year as an example of what activism can do.
But it was not only postal workers that came to the rally.
Retired meat packer Michael Baumann, 70, from New Jersey, came to show his solidarity with the postal workers. “I see it as an attack on the union,” said Baumann, who has been a part of a union for around 40 years. “They are using non-labor to do union work.”
Some postal services are available at Staples and may be expanded to Walmart, with many at the rally saying that the post office should not be privatized. Some held signs that said “Boycott Staples.”
Lisa Marie Casillas, 38, of Brooklyn, was passing out informational flyers about the rally to pedestrians.
“We need to stick together,” she said.
She was there to support the union and her son Ismaelpeter Casillas, 17, who is an actor and a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He said, he was there to back the postal workers’ unions, and to protest the proposed mail delays.
“We like getting checks in the mail for our work,” he said.
