Postmaster General Gets Noisy Greeting

(This article first appeared in the November/December 2006 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

APWU members showed solidarity in style and message during a protest of local and nationwide policies in early October. (Click on photo for larger view.)

With chants of “Save Our Service” and other messages protesting USPS policies locally and nationwide, more than 100 APWU members protested Postmaster General John E. Potter’s early October visit to a downtown San Antonio hotel.

“The US Post Service was created to serve all citizens and not just big special interests,” said Alex Aleman, president of the San Antonio Alamo Area Local. “It’s supposed to be based on customer service and demand, not on a computer program.”

The demonstrators included contingents from other Texas locals, such as the Beaumont SCF Area Local and the McAllen Area Local. Members of these two APWU unions were lending their support because of threats to service in their areas, which are being threatened by USPS consolidation plans.

APWU member Grace Maldonado, a 20-year USPS veteran, told La Prensa, a Spanish-language publication, that the long lines that customers are growing so accustomed to are largely the result of a management practice of hiring temporary employees rather than full-timers.

“Every year they tell us they’re going to hire more clerks and they don’t,” she told the newspaper. “When customers complained to the postmaster all he told them was to write to their congressman.”

“We plan to continue to protest the staffing policies and the new computerized scheduling programs being incorporated to strengthen deliveries for big business while forcing Texas residents to wait longer due to insufficient numbers of workers,” Aleman said.

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