Chattanooga postal processing center closing; 270 jobs leaving
On Friday, thousands of postal workers across the country will rally against the closures of selected processing centers in 37-states.
Thousands of jobs are expected to be eliminated.
One of those rallies will be here in Chattanooga where the mail processing center on Shallowford Road is expected to shut down next spring.
According to the Postal Service Union, roughly 270 people will loose their jobs when the Chattanooga facility closes. Aaron Walsh is one of those employees.
"I don’t have enough years to retire so I’ll have to relocate my family. We don’t know where that relocation may come," Walsh said.
"By the time they close us, we might not have enough available slots in Nashville or Atlanta so we’ll just have to search until we can find a place to go," said UPS employee Benny Deloach.
Union representatives told WDEF the job loss will take $5.5-million away from the local economy, especially if those workers are lucky enough to be re-hired at another facility in another state.
"The money that we will be spending on homes and groceries here in town will be spent in another town," said UPS employee Michael Hart.
Employees at the Chattanooga processing plant continue to work around the clock until the facility closes by Deloach says many of those workers are experiencing very low morale.
"It’s low because they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know which way to turn. A lot of the younger ones don’t really have a choice except to go somewhere else."
Once the facility closes, all mail for the Chattanooga metropolitan are will be processed in either Atlanta or Nashville.
Mail for mailing addresses with zip codes that begin with 370 to 372 will be processed in Nashville. Mail for mailing addresses with zip codes that begin with 302, 303, 311 and 399 will be processed in Atlanta.
Processing at both locations means mail will take a lot longer to get from point-A to point-B.
According to the U.S. Postmaster General and the Postal Board of Governors, cost cutting measure are needed. They feel the postal service is not generating enough revenue to fully sustain itself. But several local workers feel this has more to do with politics.
"To me, it should be a no problem to preserve something that you had for so long. But I think there are outside influences that want to take away some of the profit. A lot of us believe that they want to privatize the postal service," Hart said.
WDEF contacted Congressman Chuck Fleischmann about the closing and he issued a brief statement:
"The Chattanooga Processing and Distribution Center is an important part of our local economy, and the men and women who work there do an incredible job providing excellent mail service. While the USPS has faced serious financial issues in recent years and reforms are certainly necessary for the agency to be solvent, closure of this plant is not the answer. I have worked tirelessly with Senators Corker and Alexander to save this facility and will continue to work toward a better solution."
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