DALY CITY, California - It has been a stressful couple of months for 66-year-old United States Postal Service (USPS) worker Angelita Ebacuado.

She and 21 other co-workers at a USPS facility in Richmond said they are being forced by management to relocate to facilities in Bakersfield and Los Angeles, at least 300 miles away from home.

Otherwise, they lose their jobs.

“It’s a difficult job. But we want to keep it because we need to survive,” said Ebacuado.

Ebacuado and co-worker, 53-year-old Nena Pagunsan, have worked at USPS for 12 years. Both own homes here in the Bay Area.

Pagunsan said she does not want to relocate because her roots are here.

Last year, Ebacuado and Pagunsan were moved from one facility to another, but only within the Bay Area.

This will be their farthest they have been asked to move.

Pagunsan said she wrote management a letter, telling them of her hardship. “I told them that I have health problems. I’m diabetic and I have high blood pressure. Moving that far will not be good for me,” she said.

She said if she does not move, she loses her job. If she loses her job, she loses her home.

“An average pay for a postal worker is $50,000 a year. That’s a big chunk of our household income. If I lose my job, how am I going to pay my mortgage?” Pagunsan said.

Ebacuado said forcing them to move is tearing families apart.

“I live with my husband, my kids and grandkids here. Now, I have to leave them? I will be by myself there. Of course, I can’t bring them with me. They have their own jobs here. My grandchildren go to school here."

Augustine Ruiz, spokesperson for the USPS, said the economic crisis has caused the USPS to lose 20% of its mail volume nationwide.  

“What we’re offering the workers is a chance to continue their employment even during hard economic times,” he said.

The mail volume of the USPS Richmond facility has suffered.

“The workers must be assigned to where there is more mail volume, where they’re needed more,” Ruiz said.

The workers say moving 300 miles away is not that simple, even if it means keeping a job. The USPS is not offering a moving allowance, and they will not get a raise.

“What are they trying to do to us? They’re tearing families apart,” Ebacuado said.

They said management told them that if they don’t relocate, that is considered abandonment of jobs, which means they do not get severance pay. In the end, they said, years of hard work will be for nothing.

Affected postal workers at the Richmond USPS have until July 31st to relocate. Balitang America