Submitted by Oj Diaz, Jan 25, 2007 09:26

The closing of Bronx GPO should have occurred long ago. The building is in a deplorable state. Employees work under the most hideous conditions imaginable. There are many environmental conditions employees are exposed to daily. When the plant is finally relocated to Morgan, the much needed and highly studied interior renovations should begin; the building's very existence depends on this. The community will not suffer economic looses. There are less than 300 employees working a 24 hr 7 day week shift there now. The highly anticipated reopening will include more employees that are there now. A customer service operation (mail delivery), Inspection Service Operations, and proposed leasing of space will amount to an increase in employees and the community will profit from this. The community is being misled by a small bunch of union workers that complain constantly about their work conditions and now that the final steps are being made to improve working conditions in that facility, they complain yet again. I worked extremely hard to get Washington to listen to our employee concerns before retiring. The building is old, neglected, dangerous and in dire need of a full interior renovation. The very same community folks that have expressed their discontent with mail delivery, the very same community folks that have visited GPO and wondered aloud how can employees work under such stressful conditions, these are the very same folks opposing a new Yankee Stadium, the demise of the dilapidated Bronx Terminal Market where a new commercial mall will be built and these folks oppose any kind of South Bronx Development as long as they are not inconvenienced. It is fair to say, from a person that was personally involved in high level meetings with both union and Postal management officials – it is time GPO gets the much needed renovation that beautiful building needs. Isn't that the goal we all strived for? Isn't that the reason there have been so many safety grievances initiated by the unions? Isn't that the reason Postal officials have spent millions and hired URS to conduct environmental, structural and feasibility studies all of these years. The scaffolding around the building perimeter is in place to protect pedestrians and employees from falling windowpane glass sections. One last thing, the Bronx owns a facility on Brush Ave callrd the HASP building and when that building was being touted as the next Bronx Mail Processing facility back in 1989, the unions protested alleging transportation as a problem for employees and mail. Go figure and the assumption is you will never satisfy any of those Postal employees as long as there is no one to take them head on and do the right thing for the next generation of Postal employees.

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