PASADENA - Postal workers are protesting a recent consolidation that they say has led to degraded services as well as loss of the Pasadena postmark.
"This is a whistleblowing effort," said Phillip Warlick, legislative director of the American Postal Workers Union in Pasadena, at a recent meeting to kick off picketing efforts.
"History is being lost and this consolidation is an abject failure."
According to union workers, reorganization of the Mack Robinson Postal Facility at 600 N. Lincoln Ave. more than a year ago was undertaken largely to create higher profit margins. Further, they argue it does not meet federal requirements that the change have a positive effect on the community and employees, and be cost-effective.
But technological advances leading to an 11 billion-letter decrease of single-piece first-class mail actually drove the reorganization, according to a postal service representative.
"What is behind this," said Richard Maher, a public affairs specialist, "is that the amount of ... mail has dropped significantly because of online bill paying and e-mail. The postal service volume remains strong, but there is a change in the type of mail."
That change has
But the reorganization left a range of inefficiencies, union organizers said, from forcing some workers to drive farther to serving big business customers rather than the individuals and small companies the agency was originally set up for, they said.
"The \ effort is geared toward big catalogue companies and others with bulk needs," said James Scoggins, a union national business agent. "They receive discounted prices and expedited services, while individual rates go up and service slows down. Centralized shipping serves the big companies."
Currently, locally addressed outgoing mail is rerouted to major sorting facilities in Santa Clarita or Industry, then brought back to Pasadena and surrounding cities for delivery.
Organizers further complained that the change has done away with the Pasadena postmark, in place since 1875, and predating the city's establishment in 1886.
The local postmark now reads Santa Clarita Pasadena, citing the location where the mail enters the system, Maher said.
To workers' contention that there was no public notification of the reorganization, Maher said that in October 2005, elected officials, including Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, were told of the change, with a projected completion date of March 2006.
"No community meetings were held because the changes in Pasadena didn't have an effect on the actual delivery," he said.
(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4461
