*One quote is corrected that was misquoted. Article updated the quote to reflect that Biden is set to make 1 new appointment to the Postal Board of Governors, not 2. Updated 3/16
IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WZMQ) – A public input meeting regarding the fate of the Kingsford Mail Distribution Center has been rescheduled. Michelle Yuhasey, President of American Postal Workers Union 1189, expressed her concerns, urging the community to voice their opinions and take action.
The public meeting is scheduled:
April 1st, at 6.pm. CST at the Pine Mountain Ski resort. N3332 Pine Mountain Rd., Iron Mountain
“People need to know that they’re going to take the canceler if we don’t fight to keep it there. They present to us this: come and give your opinion, your opinion matters – schedule a meeting, they canceled the meeting right? Then turn around and reschedule the meeting now. But they’ve already given me notice that they’re removing the canceler, which puts the date stamp on it in Kingsford, which means you’ll no longer be able to get anything from the U.P., to the U.P. Our mail is going somewhere in Wisconsin. We don’t know exactly where. We think possibly it’s going to Milwaukee, and we think it’s going to Milwaukee based on the way priority is showing up for the window clerks. It’s showing up as a 1-day delivery, which is impossible with the way the network is set up right now, the only way that makes it overnight is if it’s all sent to Milwaukee, processed, and sent back out the next morning,’ Yuhasey stated.
She criticized the Postal Service’s move, deeming the public meeting a mere formality. “It’s nothing but a formality. They tell us we’re going to get our chance to give input and say why we think we should keep…but they’ve already made the decision, which we could tell by the February 1 notice, because of everything listed on there. If you read between the lines, you could see they were already taking the canceler then,” she lamented, though no formal notice has been given other than the vague insinuations between the fine print in the February 1 notice. “Other than the February 1 notice no, and the new notice doesn’t give any of that information,” she mentioned.
Despite the mandatory meeting, Yuhasey emphasized the need for public support. “Absolutely, we’re going to picket. And I want the public to come help us stand up for the U.P. We’re entitled to have our mail delivery the way we’re used to it,” she asserted, encouraging the public to get involved.
´It’s mandatory that they give us a meeting 30 days before they make a final decision, even though it’s pretty clear they’ve already made a final decision. And then after that meeting, they have to give us – they’re supposed to give us 30 days notice of the meeting. Which they have failed to do. Now they’re notifying us on March 15 that they’ll be meeting on April 1. Then, 60 days after that, they can remove the equipment. I got the notice on Tuesday that they are possibly removing the equipment.’
Highlighting extravagant spending elsewhere, Yuhasey questioned the Postal Service’s priorities. “Absolutely, they’re spending lavishly in other areas. They’re flying their managers all over the country to go into D.C. for a big meeting on February 28. Then they turn around after those meetings, and they take those same people that went to D.C. and they went to their areas, their new districts, and now they’re training other people, and they’re giving that information out. You can’t cut the service to the people on the claim that we’re running out of money, ‘we have to make a solvent into the future,’ and then go ahead and spend all kinds of money to pull people into D.C. to listen to the Postmaster General speak. It could’ve been done through zoom. The post office uses zoom for most meetings. Why would we spend all that money to send people places when you can do it electronically? It was almost like a showboat kind of thing he was doing by bringing everybody in, and he also did not put all our money into our retirement this quarter. He only put half in; he’s required to put it in every quarter. He decided instead of putting $80 million, he put 40 million in and kept the other $40 million.’ she criticized, adding that nobody knows what happened to the other $40 million.
As tensions escalate, Yuhasey urged citizens to take action. “Use your link, call your representatives; email them and write letters to the postmaster general. Write letters to the postal board of governors. Biden is set to make 1 new appointment onto the postal board of governors. We need [that appointment] made, because this postmaster general is out of control. He cannot spend the money he’s spending to fly his own people around and say ‘sorry, we can’t deliver your mail because we can’t afford it’. It’s lavish spending.’
In the meantime, Yuhasey is filing a request for information with the Postal Service regarding the changes and information outlined in the February notice.
´Based off the February 1 notice that they gave us of the changes that they intended to make, the improvements they intended to make, the savings they claim they are going to have annually… I wrote a request for information for all of that information [asking the postal service], -if you were going to save $780,000-$1 million on trucking, I would like you to show me that because I don’t see that happening.´
Yuhasey says the information she requested, so far, hasn’t been given, causing her to take further action with the National Labor Relations Board.
“They told me no information available locally so now I’ve grieved it, and I’ll go on to file a labor charge with it to get my information,” she explained, adding “When the Post Office violates their contract and refuses to give you information, you go to the NLRB, and they file a charge saying ‘you’re not cooperating based on your collective bargaining agreement, and you have to give them that information,’ but I wanted that information before this meeting. And it doesn’t look like I’m going to get it before this meeting,” she expressed.
Members of the local community can submit their comments at:
