90 Church Also Reducing
Postal Cuts Draw Protest in Bronx

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

As this newspaper went to press July 31, elected officials, community residents and members of the New York Metro Area Postal Union gathered in The Bronx to protest what they believe is a U.S. Postal Service plan to consolidate its mail-processing centers.

CLARICE TORRENCE: Sounding the alarms.

It's the second time the group has rallied in opposition to a proposal floated by the USPS that would move mail processing out of the Bronx General Post Office on the Grand Concourse to a facility located in the west Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea.

USPS: No Sure Thing

The USPS has said it has no definitive plans to shut down its Bronx processing center, and accused New York Metro Area Postal Union President Clarice Torrence of prematurely alarming her membership.

The USPS, however, has officially altered the name of the facility from Bronx HASP to Morgan P&DC, which is the same name as its Manhattan processing center.

The change effectively makes the Bronx station part of the Manhattan location, union officials contended. Additionally, said Chuck Zlatkin, a postal union spokesman, two management sources have confirmed that the USPS plans to keep the front end of the Bronx General Post Office on Grand Concourse and 149th St. open, but will shut down the processing center that sorts local mail. According to union sources, all mail previously sorted in The Bronx will be trucked to the Chelsea facility and handled there.

DEBORAH BETHEA: Battling 90 Church St. cuts.

Laments Displacement

Mr. Zlatkin said it might not result in widespread job loss, since many employees would likely be able to transfer or bid for work elsewhere, but it would affect workers, customers and area businesses.

"The USPS has said in its proposal that no more than 500 workers might be affected by this, but there are more than 2,000 working at these facilities, so we think it will be a lot more," he said. "Furthermore, while they may not be fired, not everyone can be absorbed into the Manhattan site, so where will they be transferred - 100 miles away? Two hundred miles away? We don't know."

At the same time, Bronx-to-Bronx mail will be delayed, he contended, since it will no longer be sorted in the borough, and the additional transport to and from Manhattan will exacerbate the already-stressful environment.

Cites Health Hazard

"The post office on Grand Concourse is right in the middle of Asthma Alley," Mr. Zlatkin said, referring to a part of The Bronx known to have the highest rate of child asthma in the country, due in part to its heavy diesel traffic.

"Does the community really need more trucks lugging mail back and forth from Manhattan, and for that matter, does Chelsea want an influx of trucks in the neighborhood, adding to congestion and air pollution? This plan may satisfy some cost analyst in the USPS, but I don't think residents in either community, or the workers, are in favor of this move," he asserted.

The union is also fighting an attempt to have 50 postal workers at 90 Church St. "excessed" out of that location.

The USPS, which already shut down two other post offices that used to service lower Manhattan, maintains that there's not enough work for employees at 90 Church St.. It plans to cut its weekday hours of operation, from 7 a.m. to midnight, to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday hours could also be shortened.

Automation a Factor

Mr. Zlatkin said involuntary relocation of employees was a by-product of increased automation within the USPS. He said the agency, plagued by falling profits, has launched a nationwide redesign that calls for more investment in technology that can perform tasks traditionally done by workers.

The 90 Church St. Post Office is not the only one facing such change, he said, and he noted that the union has grieved every reassessment done by the USPS that resulted in job losses due to automation.

At the same time, he noted, the union can't tell the agency not to automate. "It's hard to argue against automation - what the union does is make sure everything is enforced by the contract and the agreements that go along with that," he said.

But Mail Processing Clerk Deborah Bethea, a 23-year veteran who works at 90 Church St., said the union hadn't been following its own seniority rules.

"There are lines at 90 Church St. every day, first of all, so I don't even know if the USPS's claim that there isn't enough work is true. Maybe some employees could be moved, but 50 of us, when there's only 122 clerks? That's too much," she said. "But also, some senior workers are being told they have to go, while some junior clerks can stay."

Ms. Bethea said she has been told by supervisors that six Mail Handlers, 11 window clerks and 23 processing clerks will be excessed by the USPS no later than Aug. 19.

She said that management has been handing out "bids" to the workers - other jobs and shifts that are open in post offices around the city. The displaced employees can bid on the location and shift they would like, and the selection will be made based on seniority.

'Fighting for Same Jobs'

"But it's not just us 50 bidding - there are 123 clerks citywide being moved, so we are all fighting for the same shifts and positions," she noted.

Mr. Zlatkin denied Ms. Bethea's claims that the union hadn't been enforcing seniority rules. He said all new assignments would be awarded on that basis.

But he didn't dispute Ms. Bethea's assertion that some junior workers might stay at 90 Church St.. "That goes back to a local memorandum [signed by the previous union president] that allows people in certain categories to stay on because they have special skills or training," he said.

At 90 Church St., he explained, the "Sales and Services Associates" who staff the customer service windows are trained to sell stamps, process money orders and first-class requests, send certified and registered letters, run computers and interact with the public.

"You have to go through training for those jobs and you have to qualify for them," Mr. Zlatkin said. "There are Mail-Processing Clerks who are senior [to some of the window clerks] at 90 Church St., but they don't have those special skills."

Mail-Processing Clerks are particularly vulnerable to automation, he added, because the USPS is increasingly relying on optical scanning machines that read addresses and sort them at a rate that's much faster than human workers.

Ms. Bethea, who said the Mail-Processing Clerks at 90 Church St. average about two hours of overtime a day, doubted that increased technology would ease the bottleneck.

"I'm breaking down the mail as it comes through so that carriers can get it to the right house," she said. "We make sure it gets where it's supposed to go - do machines do that?"