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Below is a response by former APWU President William Burrus to a question posed online by a union member. Other questions cover a wide range of topics, from contract enforcement to union governance.

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Question:

I have been a clerk since 1988, and I am concerned that the Clerk Craft has taken the brunt of the downsizing of employees, while mail volume has doubled. Please answer the following questions:

  1. How many clerks were employed in 1988, and what was the mail volume?
  2. How many clerks are employed currently, and what is the mail volume?
  3. What was the total USPS employment in 1988, and what is it today?
  4. What year had the highest employment of clerks and what was the mail volume?

During almost 20 years of postal employment, I have observed the loss of many clerk jobs. An LSM took 17 people to run. The same amount of mail now can be run on automated equipment, with 2 to 4 employees, depending on the type of mail. Not to mention the number of clerks that were needed to pitch up mail to the carriers. That work is now done on DBCSs. I believe the hard facts from my questions should prove my point.

Chuck, Central Massachusetts Area Local

President Burrus:

Thank you for your inquiry. The thrust of your question relates to the technological and workforce changes that have occurred over your career. In response to your specific questions, the statistics reflecting volume and complement are as follows:

1986

2006

Clerk Craft Complement

290,225

213,920

First-Class Mail Volume

76.2 billion

97.6 billion

Salary, Grade 6 Step 0

$27,974

$49,733

The point of your inquiry is, “Why hasn’t the employee complement increased proportionally with mail volume?” The answer is that the world has changed and the Postal Service has changed. The LSM machines have been replaced with more modern technology, and the number of jobs has been reduced — through attrition.

Postal workers are much more productive today than they were in 1986. A similar increase in productivity has occurred in virtually every industry, and productivity improvements will continue as our civilization progresses. Computers have unleashed a whole new world of ways to produce goods and generate information.

A comparison in any industry over this 20-year period will reflect similar changes. The world of 2007 is dramatically changed from that of 1986.

Oct. 19, 2007

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