12.26.2001 00:12

Postal union says Christmas Eve shift was not needed

• While union officials say mail was held over to provide clerks with work, managment denies the charge, saying such a practice is illegal.

BY MICHAEL CORKERY, Journal Staff Writer

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PROVIDENCE -- Postal workers say it has not been an easy year. First, they faced anthrax, which killed several employees and sparked fear in post offices across the nation.

Then, earlier this month, they learned that a presidential declaration designating Christmas Eve as a holiday for some federal workers in recognition of their brave efforts since Sept. 11 did not apply to them. Postal employees would have to work on Christmas Eve, as they had the previous year.

At the post office on Corliss Street, union officials said workers were even more irked because mail was held over from Sunday night to give clerks something to process on Christmas Eve. The union claimed this was done to justify keeping the postal workers in the plant that night.

"It's the ultimate insult," said Stan Banach, President of Local 387 of the American Postal Workers Union, representing more than 1,200 mail clerks, maintenance workers and other employees working at the Corliss Street plant.

Christine Dugas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service vehemently refuted the union leaders' claim that mail was deliberately held over.

"It would be a crime to delay that," she said. "It might have been delayed for some other reason, but there is no way it was done to create work."

According to Banach, tens of thousands of pieces of first class mail, filling 30 hampers, were not processed on Sunday to ensure that employees had enough mail to sort the next day.

"So that higher levels of management would not look bad forcing employees to stay on Christmas Eve," according to the union's press release.

Banach emphasized that this has been a time of tremendous stress for postal workers, who are still reeling from the anthrax threat.

"Kids are asking, 'Are you going to die?' and now with the holidays they expect to be with their families," Banach said. "And they're being held up for no reason."

Throughout the anthrax scare, workers at the Providence processing center continued to show up for work and attendance remained high despite the threats, Banach said.

"It would have meant so much for them to have the day off," he said. "The public would understand."

About 25 of the 200 employees working Christmas Eve night in Providence threatened to walk out before a manager allowed some workers to leave early, union leaders said.

Dugas said she sympathizes with employees working on Christmas Eve, but this month is the busiest time of year at the Postal Service, as millions of people send gifts and cards for the holidays. According to Banach, the volume of mail was relatively light Monday night save for the pieces that were allegedly held over. Many businesses did not send out mail on Monday because of the holiday the next day, he said.

Postal workers across the country were informed about three weeks ago that the president's holiday declaration for federal employees did not cover the postal service, which is a quasi-governmental agency, Dugas said. Workers in Providence had the option of asking for Christmas Eve off, she said.

"Postal workers were heroic during the crisis, they worked through incredible challenges," Dugas said. "Every American including myself owes a debt of gratitude to postal employees."

But Dugas added: "We are public servants and sometimes we have to make sacrifices and this was one of those times, I understand their frustrations, but we are essential people during this season. People all over the world depend on the postal service."

With Journal staff reports from Ed Fitzpatrick.

Also, Latest Facts Update from USPS

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002

Answers

Union Seeks Meeting on Anthrax Find

Washington Post

By Lukas I. Alpert, Associated Press Writer, Monday, December 31, 2001; 7:10 PM

NEW YORK –– Postal union lawyers asked Monday for a conference with a judge to discuss cleanup at a Manhattan mail-sorting facility where traces of anthrax were twice discovered.

The machine and four others at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center tested positive for anthrax in October and were cleaned. But a Dec. 23 test detected trace amounts of anthrax on one sorting machine, postal officials said.

Union lawyer Louie Nikolaidis wrote to the judge that the postal service should "thoroughly test and 'once and for all' decontaminate the Morgan facility."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Alter wrote that the machine had been cleaned again and that the area around it had been temporarily closed.

Alter said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Postal Service that the anthrax spores likely were left over from an earlier cleaning and that the facility was safe.

The court was closed Monday, and the judge was expected to receive the papers Wednesday at the earliest.

Union officials had asked the court in October to close the facility until the cleanup was complete. The judge denied the request but said he wanted to be informed of any developments.

After the latest anthrax detection, postal union President William Smith advised employees to stay home until the extent of the contamination was known. But postal officials said attendance appeared to be normal Monday.

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On the Net:

Postal Service: http://www.usps.com

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

© 2001 The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002

MAIL CREWS WORK THROUGH LATEST ANTHRAX SCARE

By WILLIAM J. GORTA

New York Post

January 1, 2002 -- Manhattan postal workers, for the second straight day, yesterday defied their union's call to stay home from the Morgan mail facility, where traces of anthrax were rediscovered last week.

The contaminated sorting machine, along with several others, had been cleaned in October, when anthrax was first discovered there.

Diane Todd, a Postal Service spokeswoman, said the machine would be shut down for about a week to clean the "very negligible trace of anthrax" - possibly residue from October.

Postal officials said staffing yesterday was unaffected, despite a call from William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, for workers to stay home until the extent of the contamination is clear.

Morgan handles 12.5 million pieces of mail a day.

"Attendance has been normal so far," said postal official Pat McGovern.

Smith said he'll ask a judge to shut the facility until it's thoroughly tested and sanitized.

With Post Wire Services

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002

Well, we haven't had mail on OUR street for two bloody days. What's that about not keeping y'all from appointed rounds or something? UPS got through, dammit, and the Hungarian got mail and SHE lives on a hill.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002