Postal Hours May Be Cut by Budget Trims

Southern Californians may soon find neighborhood post offices opening later, closing earlier and even shutting their doors for a half-day each week, as postal officials scramble to comply with new federal budget cuts, officials said Saturday.

The reductions, which will probably take effect in 30 to 60 days, may affect the hours of all 250 post offices in Los Angeles and Orange counties. However, home delivery will not be cut on Saturdays, a move that had been threatened earlier in budget negotiations in Washington, officials said.

No layoffs of postal employees will occur, officials said, but many workers will be taking home smaller paychecks because of reductions in scheduled and overtime hours.

Under the proposed cuts, some postal stations and branches may close for a half-day Wednesday, which traditionally is a slower day for customer traffic. Other offices may drop the special early morning and late-evening hours instituted in the last 18 months, said David Mazer, spokesman for the Los Angeles division of the U.S. Postal Service.

“We know for sure that there will always be mail delivery on Saturday, because that is most important to consumers,” Mazer said. “But there may be cutbacks of Saturday morning window hours and cutbacks of the extended window hours now offered by many stations during the week.”

One possible cut could affect mail delivery, however.

According to postal union officials, who were briefed on the proposed cuts last week, Sunday processing of mail may be greatly reduced, meaning that some letters mailed just before the weekend could arrive at their destination a day later than usual.

Union Viewpoint

Omar Gonzales, president of the American Postal Workers Union local representing 4,425 members in Los Angeles, said postal officials want to “reduce or eliminate Sunday processing of mail.”

William Burrus, executive vice president of the national union, said from New York that under the proposal, mail normally handled on Sundays would be handled on Mondays instead. He said the union will fight the proposed cuts.

The cutbacks were announced Friday in Washington by Postmaster General Preston R. Tisch, who said the specific changes in window service hours would be left largely to local postal officials.

The budget reductions are required under the fiscal 1988 funding bill signed Dec. 22 by President Reagan. The postal service must trim $160 million from this year’s operating budget.

Last month, Tisch announced deferral or cancellation of $1.7 billion in contracts for buildings, equipment and vehicles. That move has held up construction of $250 million worth of mail facilities and post offices in Van Nuys, Alhambra, Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach, Tarzana, Westchester, North Long Beach, East Los Angeles, Lincoln Heights and Altadena.

Four Divisions

Mazer said that in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the postal service is operated under four separate divisions--Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Long Beach and Santa Ana--and that each division may come up with a different way to cut window service hours.

“What happens in the Valley or Orange County is not necessarily what will happen in the city, though it could be the same,” Mazer said.

He said many stations currently offer window service as early as 7 a.m., while others have in the last year or so extended hours at night to as late as 7 p.m.

“These extended hours were adopted because of the changing life styles of people who need to get to the post office,” Mazer said.

Weekend supervisors at post offices throughout Los Angeles said Saturday that they have not yet been notified whether their offices will be affected by the reductions.

“These cutbacks are not news to us, but we don’t know yet if the Los Angeles area will be one of those that is affected,” said a supervisor in Los Feliz.

Public Disfavor Seen

“We didn’t hear anything about what hours will be cut back yet, but I can tell you the public doesn’t want this,” said another supervisor in Los Angeles, who asked not to be identified.

It appeared likely that closing service windows for a half-day on Wednesdays--an idea that has been suggested by Tisch--would affect some stations more seriously than others.

J. Arthur, weekend supervisor in Westchester, said her station “is a busy one that doesn’t really have a slow day. We have customers all the time, so anytime we close early there would be customers turned away.”

Tisch, in his announcement Friday, tried to reassure the public that the postal service is not going to “undo the progress we have made over the past 18 months” when it began offering extended window hours.

But union officials painted a less optimistic picture.

Threat to Service

Gonzales, of the Los Angeles local, said the cuts in operating hours, coupled with reductions in Sunday mail processing, cancellation of major construction contracts and other cutbacks are “a steppingstone for the elimination of the postal service as we know it.”

Gonzales said he is concerned that the postal service will come under increasing pressure to further tighten its budget by raising postage charges.

Such a move, he said, could make the privatization of the postal service seem more appealing to the public, and “that would be bad. Private post office services would serve (only) the major metropolitan areas since that’s more economical, and leave the rest for whoever wants to deal with it.”

Staff writer Henry Weinstein contributed to this article.