Postal Efficiency Push Builds Tension in O.C.

A push to improve productivity in Orange County’s Santa Ana Division of the U.S. Postal Service has resulted in greater tension between management and employees, a union official for the postal clerks said on Wednesday. Among other things, cramped facilities have forced some clerks to work outdoors under canopies, and more employee grievances have been filed.

“There’s a lot of job stress in our jobs as postal clerks,” said Bobby Donelson, president of the 2,200-member American Postal Workers local in Santa Ana. “Some of the biggest problems we have to contend with in the post office (are) putting up with long night hours because we traditionally sort the mail after the end of the day and meeting productivity goals.”

Because postal officials are pushing for more efficiency, Donelson charged, more workers are under stress, and some are harassed by supervisors who want to get the mail out “at any cost.”

While top postal executives are attempting to improve conditions and morale, the message often does not reach the lower ranks, Donelson said.

Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank has acknowledged that the agency faces serious financial problems only a year after a major postal rate increase to 25 cents. Expenses are up; revenues and productivity are down. And many of the agency’s biggest customers are deeply concerned about possible new rate hikes and are testing alternative mail delivery.

Top executives at the Santa Ana division acknowledge that keeping pace with intense customer demand is a difficult problem.

“But the push for productivity is nothing new, and, in fact, the American people demand it,” said Joseph Breckenridge, a spokesman for the division, which includes Orange County and parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

“You have to remember that the United States still has a very attractive first-class mail rate. You look anywhere else in other countries and it’s 30 cents, 40 cents or higher,” Breckenridge said.

Santa Ana Postmaster Hector G. Godinez said that of the grievances filed, only 3% ever go unresolved beyond the local level, a figure Godinez noted with pride.

“I feel that the morale is pretty darned good, and as an example, we have a budget of $429 million, which is one of the largest (of any postal division) in the country and the best productivity in the western region,” Godinez said.

For some of the 10,800 employees working at 100 post offices in the Santa Ana division, however, improved productivity has meant working in overcrowded post office buildings especially in south Orange County, where the size of the postal service’s facilities have failed to keep pace with housing and commercial development.

Godinez acknowledged that the county’s southern growth “has kept us on our toes 24 hours a day.” Breckenridge added that the Postal Service has plans to build new facilities but that the division is limited by its budget.

In fact, facilities in Irvine, Mission Viejo and Laguna Beach have become so cramped that postal clerks have been forced to work outdoors under canopies, Donelson said.

“There’s just no room inside anymore, and postal administrators haven’t been able to get larger facilities to handle the growth,” he said.

Breckenridge, who is in charge of communications for the division, said he visited the Irvine post office recently while shooting an informational videotape for employees.

“Yes, they are working under a canopy in Irvine,” he said. “Fortunately we have good weather here in Orange County, and from what I saw during that brief visit the workers have a good attitude.”

Godinez said that in the division, relations “are good.”

“I know Donelson and I have the greatest respect for him,” Godinez said.

The filing of grievances, however, whether due in part to increased tension, or higher productivity goals, has increased, Donelson said.

This year, 450 grievances were filed by postal clerks from January through the end of April.

“Last year we had 999 grievances filed . . . and at the pace we’re going this year, we’re easily going to hit about 1,200 for the year,” Donelson said.

For example, Donelson said that in Orange, a 55-year-old clerk with more than 20 years in the post office was removed from his job suddenly and without explanation.

“He never got a true reason for what they did. All of a sudden they just hauled him out of there with no explanation, and he was given another assignment,” Donelson said.

Breckenridge said he could not comment on any specific complaint but said that, in general, he believes that grievance filings are only slightly up. He noted that many of them are jurisdictional disputes between the mail handlers and postal clerks.