Just five months ago, community members and postal workers protested in front of the Florence post office.
Their hopes were that the United States Postal Service would reverse its decision to consolidate.
The company first announced its decision back 2011 and readied for phase II of consolidation 82 of its processing facilities, including the one in Florence.
It’s a move that would relocate processing operations to Columbia and reduce costs by $20 billion by 2017.
However, months after protests and town hall meetings locally, political pressure from U.S. Senators has forced consolidation to be pushed back.
“Well we are happy to that but we want this to completely end,” mentioned Florence’s American Postal Workers Union President Isaac Nixon.
“Because it’s going to delay the mail and already delaying the mail in the community,” he added.
In December, 30 Senators urged USPS not to move forward with network rationalization.
USPS says the plan will help the struggling agency save money and adjust to the decline in first class mail.
“It’s important if we plan on growing the community, to have strong postal service,” explained Nixon.
Officials from the USPS district office in Columbia say the consolidation will not lead to any layoffs and will not affect package services or priority mail.
Phase II of the Florence site consolidation will begin April 18th.
