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Post Office Plan to Slow Mail

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In support of Stephen Gold’s (Postal Rate Commission’s consumer advocate) call for a grass-roots effort to stop postal management’s attempt to destroy service standards (“Post Office Develops Plan to Slow Mail--on Purpose,” Part A, Dec. 2), the American public should rise up in rage.

Lowering standards is no way to run a business. Instead of doing away with its standards, postal bigwigs should work on improving their greatest resource. No--not the billion-dollar machines, I’m referring to people power.

The real problem with the U.S. Postal Service is not its so-called “tight” delivery standards; the fact is mismanagement is our greatest enemy. Sure, the bosses may point fingers at workers and there may even be some less than productive employees, but the fact remains that it’s management that runs the post office.

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It’s management that under-mans service windows and creates a worker-be-damned atmosphere which coldly affects postal patrons. It’s postal bosses who deny workers holidays even when there is little or no mail to work. It’s the bosses who force employees who don’t want to work overtime in (for additional hours), and refuse those who want to work overtime.

In our own Los Angeles division, delivery of first-class mail is the worst in the entire Western United States. Why? Because of management’s relations with its workers. Often its contempt for workers is clearly visible.

Every day postal workers are faced with mismanagement. Voicing opposition to mismanagement can lead to harassment, branding as a troublemaker or even worse, discipline.

Employee morale is at an all-time low. Last year more than $500 million was invested in automation, yet the benefits are not being realized by the bosses. Why? Perhaps because management refuses to address and quell the human fear of change.

For those who feel postal workers are overpaid and underworked, I urge you to pay a visit to the postal factory and stay for a full shift and see how workers must cope not only with the machines, but with the harassment of many supervisors who themselves are victims of harassment from the big bosses. The stress can overwhelm you!

Gold may not agree with why we don’t want standards lowered, but we can agree that lowering delivery standards lowers the value of our business. We must stop the erosion of universal postal services. We can’t let them make first-class mail delivery a third-rate business!

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OMAR M. GONZALEZ

General President

American Postal Workers Union

Los Angeles

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