With OWS Support, Advocates Plan Rally to Protest Post Office Closures

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http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/03/with_ows_suppor.php

n the age of who-uses-paper-for-anything-ever-anymore, there's one casualty in New York City that has activists from across the five boroughs up in arms: the post offices.

This month, a group of advocates are rallying together to bring attention to the United States Postal Service's plan to potentially shut down post offices throughout the city this year. The growing protest, organized through a newly-formed group called Community Labor United for Postal Jobs and Services, is targeting the Postal Service for planning closures that organizers say will disproportionately impact working class and low-income families in communities of color in the city. USPS, though, says that it is trying to tighten its belt in the face of dire financial challenges across the country and that it is choosing closures based on careful studies and specific criteria.

And last night, the effort got fresh support from Zuccotti Park -- the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly and the OWS labor committee endorsed a plan to demonstrate this month at post offices throughout the city.

An organizer from Community Labor United for Postal Jobs and Services sent Runnin' Scared the original list of 34 post offices that were being considered for shutdowns, with 17 in the Bronx, five in Brooklyn, six in Manhattan, five in Queens, and one in Staten Island. The advocates said that they think the Bronx has one of the highest concentration of potential closures in the nation. This afternoon, though, USPS officials told Runnin' Scared that their recent studies of these post offices have led them to remove 21 from that list. That means that 13 still have to be studied and could potentially be shut down (all the ones from Brooklyn have been removed, a USPS official said).