MARCH 4, 2011:NWLP
3/1/11
10:09 AM
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Postal workers, customers testify before Workers’ Rights Board
After listening to testimony from
postal customers and workers about
deteriorating service and substandard
working conditions at the U.S. Postal
Service, a Portland Workers’ Rights
Board recommended that USPS hire
more letter carriers and clerks to help
alleviate the problem.
The Workers’ Rights Board is a
project of Portland Jobs with Justice, a
coalition of 90 organizations working
for workers’ rights. The board is drawn
from a wide spectrum of community
leaders willing to intervene when
workers’ rights are threatened.
Oregon state Sen. Chip Shields (D-
Portland) chaired the public hearing
Feb. 21 at Augustana Lutheran Church
in Northeast Portland. More than 100
people attended, with 20 people offer-
ing testimony.
Joining Shields on the panel were
United Methodist Pastor John
Schwiebert; Geri Washington, a Mult-
nomah Education Service District direc-
tor; Don Oman, owner of Casa Bruno;
Jon Bartholomew of OSPIRG; and Bill
Bigelow of Rethinking Schools.
Workers testified of chronic manda-
tory overtime, late, irregular delivery,
and pressure to work with injuries,
while at the same time “transitional
employees” revealed how they have
worked under one-year contracts with
no benefits for as long as four years.
Anil Nath has worked as a transi-
tional employee (the equivalent of a
temp) for three-and-a-half years. “I’ve
worked very hard in very extreme con-
ditions of weather, and I’ve been
bounced around like a ping-pong from
station to station.”
He told the panel that while he was
away from work to get treatment for a
work-related injury, the Postal Service
tried to fire him. “Thank goodness that I
do have one benefit: I belonged to the
union and they got my job back in days,”
he said.
Other transitional employees said
they were afraid to take time off for fear
of being fired or not having their con-
tracts renewed.
ABOVE) Gloria McMurtry, a small business owner in Northeast Portland,
testifies before a Workers Rights Board about the importance of having
regular six-day a week delivery with the same carrier. (BELOW) Karen
Staats, a member of Letter Carriers Branch 82, shows injuries she has
incurred while delivering the mail. Staats told the panel that she felt pressured
to return to work before she had fully healed from torn ligaments and a
fractured ankle. She reinjured her ankle hurrying to finish her route and will
live with permanent pain and swelling for the rest of her life. “You’d be
surprised how much a foot impacts the rest of your body,” she said.
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PAGE 2
dated by Congress in 2006.
“No other government agency has to
do this. No private company is required
to do this,” Card said.
Card said the fund currently has
enough money ($40 billion) to cover all
retiree health care needs for the next 20
years. Additionally, the Office of the In-
spector General has reported that postal
employee retirement accounts are over-
funded by more than $50 billion.
“If Congress eliminates the mandate,
we can keep your local post office open
and continue to deliver six days a week
... refund the overpayment of ratepayer
funds in our retirement accounts, and
hire the unemployed,” Card said.
After listening to testimony and ask-
ing questions, the Workers’ Rights
Board adjourned briefly before issuing
its report, which included a pledge to re-
quest a meeting with USPS manage-
ment to recommend it restore customer
service and improve working condi-
tions by fully staffing postal facilities.
The panel also pledged to communi-
cate with Portland’s Congressional del-
egation and President Obama their de-
sire to see a swift fix to the USPS
accounting problems.
“The issues facing the public Postal
Service are of deep concern to all com-
munity members,” Sen. Shields said. “I
found particularly troubling certain
management practices, especially with
regard to understaffing and transitional
employees, but I also came away with a
sense of hope because of some great
ideas for the future.”
Teacher and Rethinking Schools ed-
itor Bill Bigelow said, “I learned some-
thing new here tonight. I didn’t know
this, and I feel that I’m a pretty in-
formed person. I would like more peo-
ple to hear what we’ve heard tonight.”
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Ken Wilson, a 26-year letter carrier,
said for most of his career he has been
able to balance job and family responsi-
bilities without too much problem. That
has changed the last couple of years.
A former Little League manager, he
had to give that up because he couldn’t
always make practices or be on time for
games. He said he’s seldom home early
enough to help his son with homework.
“I want to be there for them (family),
but the Post Office is keeping me away
from them with all of the mandatory
overtime and working my day off be-
cause they won’t hire enough people to
do the job right.”
Window clerk Patty Olsen, a mem-
ber of American Postal Workers Union
Local 128, said long lines, shorter
hours, and closures have impacted
everyone. She said under the USPS
plan, 2,000 stations are earmarked for
closure nationwide over the next few
years, with rumors circulating locally
that Creston and University stations are
on the chopping block.
“Customers are unhappy, and work-
ers are frustrated,” Olsen said.
Postal workers said it only makes
sense to hire more employees working
regular 40-hour workweeks with no
forced overtime. “It’s easy to work
harder and be more productive when
you know you’ll have time to recover
and heal,” one worker said.
But USPS management says the hir-
ing freeze is necessary to cut labor costs
because of declining revenue. The Post-
master General is further advocating
cutting one or two days of delivery per
week.
National Association of Letter Carri-
ers Branch 82 Secretary-Treasurer
Kevin Card reminded the Workers’
Rights Board that USPS is a self-sup-
porting government agency that doesn’t
use any taxpayer dollars to operate.
“Anyone saying the USPS is looking
for a bailout is flat-out lying,” he said.
USPS reportedly lost $8 billion last
year, but most of that loss — $5.5 bil-
lion — was due to a burdensome retiree
health care prefunding schedule man-
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
MARCH 4, 2011
