Postal Workers Protest National Change

The U.S. Postal Service is making changes across the county, but some local postal workers aren't happy about it.

Members of the American Postal Workers Union picketed Thursday in Weirton, contending the changes will be a major inconvenience for customers.

The U.S. Postal Service is getting rid of some mailboxes throughout Weirton, and is also adding an additional collection time at 2 p.m.

Local postal workers fear those changes will cause mail to be delivered later in the day.

Sandy Gajtka, president of the Weirton American Postal Workers Union, said, "Sometimes that's not always convenient for senior citizens we have in town if they can't drive or it's not as close as they feel like driving to."

Tad Kelley, spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service, said the postal service is not getting rid of its traditional 5 p.m. collection time. Instead, they're simply adding a new one.

"From the hours of 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m., we're going to hit some of these business boxes that we think are going to accumulate a lot of mail business so that we can get it over to our Wheeling processing plant as quickly as possible," Kelly said.

Some local union workers are concerned that the changes are signs of future inconveniences, and were asking post office customers to sign petitions which will be sent to Senators Byrd and Rockefeller.

-Renee Cardelli & Allison Latos, NEWS9