Tulsa Postal Workers Protest Local Mail Center Closing

Postal workers are protesting to save their jobs and the Tulsa mail center.

The mail center could close in less than a year because of budget cuts and workers said there would be major delays if Congress doesn't step in.

The Postal Service is trying to save money somewhere, and the Postmaster General decided closing dozens of mail centers is the way to do it.

Postal workers, like Cynthia McNeilance, protested the scheduled closing of the Tulsa Processing and Distribution Center.

"We will lose about 400 jobs. They will be absorbed by Oklahoma City. That takes about $20 million out of the Tulsa economy."

U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe - who announced his retirement Friday - is closing the Tulsa mail center and 81 other mail centers across the country.

It'd give $3.5 billion dollars back to the financially troubled Postal Service over the next five years.

"We want to keep the integrity of the mail service viable here in this community," said American Postal Workers Union President Charley Mose.

Mose said customer service will suffer with the closings.

"Turn first class mail into two, three, maybe four day mail because it'd all have to travel down the turnpike to Oklahoma City," he said.

For example, if someone in Broken Arrow mails a letter to someone else in Broken Arrow, the letter would go to Tulsa, then to Oklahoma City, then back to Tulsa, and on to Broken Arrow.

Longtime postal worker Al Andrews called it ridiculous.

"It's not good for Tulsa and it's not good for the Postal Service," Andrews said.

He, and hundreds of his coworkers, could be out of a job if the plant closes in September.

"You put in a lot of years at a place and then all of a sudden, you know, they want you to uproot your family and home," said Andrews.

Part of the reason the Postal Service is behind financially is because in 2006 Congress mandated the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits 75 years in advance.

That costs the Postal Service $5.6 billion a year.