Union to sue post office

Associated Press

NEW YORK — A postal workers union said Friday that it will sue the U.S. Postal Service to shut down a huge Manhattan mail processing plant where four machines have been contaminated with anthrax.

"Close the facility, test the people, clean it up and send people back when it’s safe," said Louis Nikolaidis, attorney for the New York chapter of the American Postal Workers Union.

He said he has notified the Postmaster General’s Office of the intent to sue and would take the case to federal court if the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center remains open to its 5,000 employees.

The nation’s anthrax outbreak has killed three people since Oct. 5, including two Washington, D.C., postal workers this week. Nikolaidis said the lawsuit would be based on federal law governing transportation of hazardous materials.

"It’s time for the Postal Service to start putting workers first," union local president William Smith said. "They want the workers of New York metro to be guinea pigs, and I’m not going to stand for that foolishness."

The Postal Service, citing the advice of health officials, has said there is no need to close the plant, which handles all mail for Manhattan and the Bronx — about 20 million pieces a day. Spokesman Dan Quinn said he could not comment on the lawsuit.

At the Maryland funeral for one of the Washington anthrax victims, the union’s president-elect, William Burrus, told the postmaster general that postal workers would not work inside any contaminated facility.

"I’m not placing blame, but we don’t want to make that mistake again," he said.

The postal workers’ union and the National Association of Letter Carriers represent some 600,000 employees who process and deliver mail across the country.

The Postal Service disclosed the anthrax contamination at the Morgan facility Thursday. The four machines may have been tainted by anthrax-laced letters sent to NBC and the New York Post from Trenton, N.J., but no source has been determined.