Postal Workers Stage Protest Over Labor Conditions

Disgruntled employees rallied outside the Glendora post office last week, protesting what they said are overly strict working conditions and a waste of taxpayer money.

As the evening rush-hour traffic sped along Glendora Avenue on March 30, a dozen employees, accompanied by a few spouses and their children, handed out pamphlets detailing their complaints.

Workers complain that post office managers routinely discipline letter carriers for leaving their routes without permission--even to use the bathroom--and cite them for failing to turn the wheels of postal vehicles when parking downhill.

Since January, 51 in-house job grievances have been filed at the 113-person office and seven complaints lodged with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Postal officials said two-thirds of the 51 grievances have been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties; the other third are pending, as are the seven EEOC complaints.

Eighteen similar EEOC complaints last year cost taxpayers at least $65,000 in hearings, investigations and employee time off, said postal workers. Postal officials disputed the $65,000 figure, but gave no corresponding dollar amount.

According to EEOC documents, three of the claims were resolved in favor of employees. In May, Glendora postal officials dropped 15 complaints filed mainly by employees disciplined for absences or tardiness. Glendora management decided not to pursue the disciplinary cases through EEOC hearings in an effort to improve working conditions, said Terri Bouffiou, a postal service spokeswoman. The local resolution saved money that would have been spent on arbitrators, hearings and studies, she said.

Postal workers said Glendora’s strict work conditions were lifted for a time last year after a fired Dana Point postal employee stabbed his mother to death, shot and killed a former postal co-worker and wounded three others, including another co-worker. But the conditions have resurfaced in Glendora, workers said, with supervisors monitoring employee trips to the bathroom and counting sips of water at the drinking fountain.

“This is the kind of stuff that causes people to go off,” said a Glendora post office employee who requested anonymity.

Postal officials counter that the Glendora office is no more troubled than any other. The letter carriers’ union at the Glendora office chooses to resolve disputes through the grievance procedure rather than through informal talks, Bouffiou said

“I don’t think the labor climate there is any worse or better than other offices,” Bouffiou said. “That’s a pretty average post office.”

The scrutiny that has sparked employee complaints occurs only when workloads on mail routes are being analyzed, Bouffiou said. Supervisors at that time may take detailed notes, logging trips to the bathroom and sips of water in their notes, she said. Glendora added two routes earlier this year after determining some routes were overburdened.