The United States Postal Service is calling for an end to Saturday mail delivery starting in August. The USPS says the change will save the financially struggling service about $2 billion a year."We'll continue to deliver packages Monday through Saturday, but for the mail volume of letters, cards, catalogues, advertising mail, we'll only deliver that Monday through Friday. All post offices will still be open on Saturday," said Karen Mazurkiewicz, a spokesperson with the U.S. Postal Service in Buffalo.
"We really feel like this is a very reasonable solution to the economic challenges the Postal Service faces," she said.
A local postal union says it is "outraged" by the change. Lawrence Kania, president of Branch 3 of the Letter Carriers in Buffalo, says union employees are concerned about their futures.
"Our employees are pretty disturbed about where they're going to be within the next four or five months as far as scheduling issues [and] where they're going to be able to work," Kania said.
"It's just very unfortunate in that it had to happen right after a contract negotiation," he added
The carriers say the change would drastically affect customers living in rural communities and the elderly who rely on weekend mail.