The United States Postal Service – historically a dependable ladder into the middle class for African Americans – is experiencing an unprecedented decline in mail volume and revenue. As a result, thousands of postal workers nationwide are being laid off, reassigned to jobs that can be several hundred miles away or given the option to retire early.

 African Americans locally are feeling the economic pain as many face possible reassignments and the prospects of having to uproot their families and sell their homes in a down market.

At the Memphis Processing and Distribution Center on Third Street and the Memphis Bulk Mail Center on Elvis Presley, many postal workers are on edge as workers are being let go or moved. Reassigned workers may be given relocation expenses but they are only reimbursed after they have paid the moving costs, which is an economic hardship for many families.

In an effort to streamline operations and increase revenue, the U.S. Postal Service has begun to retool, outsource, restructure and reposition its career craft and supervisory employees. Thousands of jobs also will be eliminated through attrition.

Postal worker Barbara Andrade, who has 23 years on the job, finished her route Tuesday evening before returning to the Bartlett Post Office. She said the hardships her fellow postal workers are experiencing at the Memphis Processing and Distribution Center on Third Street and the Memphis Bulk Mail Center on Elvis Presley are unfortunate. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

Some African-American postal workers in Memphis fear that skin color will be used as a factor as the reductions are made. “We need to be assured that the reduction in workforce will be a fair and equitable process across the state of Tennessee and without racial bias,” said Deborah Becton, a mail handler at the Memphis P&DC.

Becton, who is not being reassigned, says it appears more African Americans in Memphis are affected by the workforce reduction than those at facilities in Knoxville and Nashville, where the workforces have larger numbers of whites.

Beth Barnett, USPS communications manager for the Tennessee district, said, however, that is not the case. There are changes in those areas as well, she said. “I’m pretty sure Memphis is significantly less than others,” she said.

“The positions are what’s being looked at. We don’t do a profile. It might be a reflection of the general population (at those facilities),” said Barnett, who spent 20 years at the Memphis P&DC before taking her current position in Nashville.

“The economic recession has been really tough on business – especially in the mail industry,” said Barnett. “We’re facing financial issues like anyone else.”

The numbers and revenues tell the story, said Barnett. In the Tennessee district, the USPS handled a total of 154,806,789 pieces of mail in 2008 compared to 138,800.677 for this year.

Despite a second quarter loss of $1.9 billion and a year-to-date loss of $2.3 billion, Barnett said the USPS is trying to make the necessary changes to improve productivity without cutting jobs.

“We’re aggressively trying to realign costs to match mail volume,” she said. “In the first half of 2009, there was a decline of 58 million hours – about 33,000 full-time employees – despite the number of delivery points by 1.1 million from the same period last year.”

The goal is to reduce work hours by more than 100 million by year’s end, which is about 57,000 full-time employees, Barnett said.
    
Moving presents economic hardships

Becton, a self-appointed spokesperson for her reassigned co-workers, said an independent investigation is needed before irreversible economic damage is done to the community. She also said postal workers shouldn’t be forced to relocate several hundred miles.

In a letter-writing campaign to U.S. senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, and U.S. representatives Marsha Blackburn, John Tanner and Steve Cohen, Becton bemoaned the hardships her coworkers are experiencing.

Charlotte Kimble, for example, has been working at the BMC for 11 years. She and co-worker Tamara Pounder are being reassigned to a postal facility in Tulsa, Okla. Another coworker, Xavier Dotson, is going to Nashville.

Kimble got a reassignment letter from her manager last year in December. A second letter arrived in February. She was supposed to report for duty on March 9, but is still on the job in Memphis.

“We’ve been on standby since March 2, sitting in a conference room with the Internet and TV on each day from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” Kimble explained. “There are about seven of us waiting on management and the union to decide our fate.”

According to Kimble, about 55 mail handlers and clerks at the BMC have been assigned to various facilities outside of Memphis. “I’ll have to leave on May 17 and report to work May 23,” said Kimble.

So far she hasn’t been able to secure housing in Tulsa. “They’ve given us time, but it’s not enough time to get everything set up,” said Kimble, who is married and has a daughter in school.

A mail handler for eight years, Pounder has two children ages nine and 13. “My daughter is graduating from eighth-grade. I will miss graduation, because I have to report to work on May 23. I asked them (management) to push the date back. They said no.”

Dotson, also a mail handler, has been employed with the Postal Service for more than 11 years. She is married and has a daughter at Tennessee State University and a son in the 10th-grade.

“I made preparation, but not enough,” said Dotson. “I went to Nashville this weekend and saw an apartment that won’t be ready until the first of the month.”

Relocating to Nashville, she explained, will be a burden on her children and husband, whose employer, Pacific Rail, doesn’t have an office in the city. “I discussed this with management, but they said I have to be there on May 23.”

According to the USPS, reassigned employees may be entitled to relocation benefits. Those benefits, however, won’t relieve the stress for Pounder, who used her savings just a few weeks to pay off bills. She is not sure now how to pay for a move.

“I didn’t know if I would go, so I spent the money on bills. Now they tell me I’m going,” she said. “Now I have to borrow the money. I need my job. If I don’t take the job, I’ll be terminated.”

Kimble, Dotson and Pounder are at a crossroads. They have no choice but to sell their homes and move their families to their respective places of employment.

“The majority of us were born in Memphis with family. And they are sending us to places where we don’t know anybody. It’s hard to express this to your children,” Pounder said.

Rep. Cohen has intervened at the behest of Becton. She first made her concerns known at an April 4 town hall meeting that the 9th District congressman conducted with John Conyers, the congressman from Michigan.  

Randy Wade, district director for Cohen’s Memphis office, said the congressman is working hard on behalf of the local postal workers. “We’re trying to make certain that there’s not a disparity in the postal workers in West Tennessee who are being reassigned verses those in Middle and East Tennessee,” Wade said.

He also pointed out that Postmaster General John E. Potter has been apprised of the postal workers’ plight in Memphis.

‘People don’t like change’

In Article 6 of the 2006-2011 national agreement between the National Association of Letter Carriers and the USPS, postal workers “shall be protected henceforth against any involuntary layoffs or force reduction.”
“We’re working closely with the Postal Service on grievances and arbitration process,” said Drew Von Bergen of the NALC. “The postal Service has been the cash cow for the government. It’s put an onerous demand on them that they shouldn’t have to face.”

Charles Hill, a candidate for local president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, said he does not think that mail volume has declined enough to warrant employee reassignments.

“We have a contract that we are supposed to enforce. Sometimes it’s enforced, sometimes it’s not,” said Hill, a mail handler and equipment operator for 21 years.  He said the contract allows workers to be moved within 500 miles – but it must be justified.

Another BMC employee, Leo Stann, said many postal workers are stressed over worksite conditions and their future as civil servants. “For people to go 650 miles to work is racist,” he said. “I’m aware of only one white lady who is affected by what’s going on.”

The American Postal Workers Union is fighting battles on several fronts with the Postal Service. The union filed a joint lawsuit in 2008 with NALC against the Postal Service and the Office of Inspector General to stop OIG from obtaining confidential medical information on employees.

Becton said impacted employees are bypassing the union and filing grievances with the EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity), just like the one she filed in April, charging discrimination. Becton is on limited duty because she was injured on the job.

Trying to find a solution that works for all sides is a tremendous challenge, Barnett said.
“We’ve got to make some adjustments to try to right side our organization and try to deliver for the customer,” she said.

“Any time you talk about change, people don’t like it.”