Fed inquirybuys postal employees six months

Henderson's visit came from the prodding of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) who two months ago requested that the General Accounting Office look into the proposal to close the facility and examine the effects the closure would have on its workers. The GAO investigation of the facility's closure will take six months, and until then Henderson has vowed to not make any final decision on the matter.

"It's not something that happens very often that a Post Mater General has a lengthy discussion with a Congressman then makes a 2000 mile trip to meet with workers. I feel it went extremely well and that he got a powerful presentation on how people would be affected by this closure," said Lantos. "I told him I feel very deeply about this. And that I will fight as hard as I can to keep the facility open."

Lantos, early on took up the plight of these workers and has been using some of his political clout to delay, if not stop altogether, the possible closure of the facility.

In the end, however, it is unknown how far his clout will go with the postal service who are in a $500,000,000 dollar hole and looking at several facilities around the country to consolidate, close or reorganize in an attempt to recoup loss revenue -- much of which is due to the fact that people just are not utilizing the conventional means in light of electronic mail.

Lantos conceded to the uncertainty, but stated that with the GAO investigation "we have at least bought some time."

Postal Union representatives have referred to the possible closure as union-busting. In the mid '90s, in what was called belt-tightening measures, the USPS reclassified approximately 30 percent of the highly-skilled workload at the Information Service Center and contracted the work out to independent firms. So it appears questionable to some, including Lantos, that the facility would now close due to a decrease in workload.

"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy," Lantos said about the contracting out of information technology work. "The answer is not to contract out the work."

Dan De Miglio, the USPS spokesperson, denied that the actions of the USPS in the mid '90s was in anyway a precursor for the closure of the facility.

"Of course we don't want to lose folks. And we understand their families are here and their children are in school," De Miglio said. "The question is, where do you cut-back, where do you decrease overhead? The USPS will be installing a rate-increase in January. But even with the rate-increase we are still $400,000,000 in the hole. You have to cut back where the workload has decreased. Everything is on the table to be cut. We have to do something. Otherwise we will just be hemorrhaging red ink."

De Miglio stressed that the facility is not slated for closure yet. "It's only a proposal," he added.

Lantos also stated that the closure of the facility could cause fiscal problems for the post service. In order to train an information technology worker, the USPS has spent a veritable mint. The skill set needed for this type of work has cost the agency more than $100,000 per person.

"It is very short-sighted of the Postal Service to let these people go into the private sector. It's like the Air Force training pilots then telling them to go work for United," Lantos said.

The word from Post Master General William Henderson was that the federal agency cares about its workers and the proposal to close the facility is only that -- a proposal. But there have been many raised eyebrows in this round about with the post office. Morale at the facility has been low. Security officers have been shielding the entry from the media and some have already quit, reportedly due to the fear of losing their job. Workers who have chosen to ride it out have done so reluctantly. The USPS consolidated its new York facility and relocated that workforce to San Mateo. Therefore many of the workers have already gone through the relocation process once and are not looking forward to doing it again.

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