N.Y. postal union threatens to sue Postal Service

NEW YORK (CNN) -- An attorney for the New York Metro Postal Union formally notified the country's top postal official Friday that the U.S. Postal Service is to be sued unless it closes a Manhattan mailing facility where anthrax was found.

Union attorney Louie Nikolaidis Friday afternoon filed a "notice of intent to sue" with U.S. Postmaster General John Potter. He also filed notices with the EPA, the U.S. attorney general and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

The U.S. Postal Service has until Monday to shut down the Morgan Mail Processing and Distribution Center or a federal lawsuit will be filed, Nikolaidis said.

Bacteria colonies found on four delivery bar code sorting machines at Morgan -- Manhattan's largest mail distribution center -- tested positive for anthrax, and that prompted the filing, Nikolaidis said.

"If we don't get a response by Monday, then we'll proceed with a lawsuit," he said.

According to Nikolaidis, the filing falls under a "citizen's suit provision" of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which he said allows citizens to "stand in the shoes of the EPA administrator" when hazardous materials threaten harm.

"Exposure to anthrax qualifies as an immediate threat," Nikolaidis said. "If the threat is imminent, then a citizen can take legal action." Under federal law, the EPA can review the filing first, and can decide to step in and act on the plaintiff's behalf.

'Fat-faced liar'

The union wants all 5,000 employees who work in the bubuildingo be kept out of the facility until it is tested. The facility remained open Friday, with only a few isolated areas closed on the floor where anthrax was found.

At a press conference Friday, David Solomon, a postal service area vice president, said the building would be closed if health officials made a future determination that employees are at risk. The president of the New York union, William Smith, Friday afternoon called Solomon a "fat-faced liar." He also termed the U.S. Postal Service "a bunch of liars and schemers."

"This postal service never told the workers that the building tested positive [for anthrax]. They told the news media," Smith said. "They must close that building down."

Smith advised workers not to enter the building Friday. A spokeswoman for the postal service said worker attendance was at normal levels "not only at the Morgan facility, but in postal offices citywide."