Yesterday, American Postal Workers Union members stood outside the Downtown U.S. Postal Service Office on Palafox Place with a petition board to save the 30-plus-year-old Pensacola branch.
The group handed out pamphlets that describe some of the things changed this year from the location including: stamp vending machines, adjusted delivery schedules and curtailed hours and window services.
According to John Olive, the APWU local branch president, the post office is on a list of roughly 167 post offices scheduled to be closed.
“What bothers me is the decision will be made in Memphis or Jacksonville,†he says. “It’s not about jobs, it’s about serving this community.â€
Last March, the Postal Service announced it would be considering the closure of 3,200 branches nationwide. The Pensacola Downtown Branch is the second most visited site in the area, but is still a target for closure because the building is being leased.
“It’s part of our history and we really don’t know what we need to do to get off (the list of closures),†says Sandra Wheeler, APWU local clerk craft director.
The Postal Service lost an estimated $7 billion in the 2009 fiscal year, which is the main reason for the national closures. There has been no timetable for when the Downtown branch would close. The West Jordan Street location would take over the mail from its location.