THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190369
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 53 lines
Mail carriers in Hampton Roads will join their counterparts across the country today in picketing local post offices to protest policies that they say will destroy the quality of mail delivery to homes and businesses.
The carriers are expected to pass out information on new regulations that they say could cause later deliveries, mistaken deliveries and mail that is never delivered.
The largest ``informational picket'' in the state is expected to be in Virginia Beach, where carriers from Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach will demonstrate together, said Tim Dowdy, state president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Carriers in other Hampton Roads cities will conduct their own pickets.
Postal service employees argue that Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon, in his push to make the service cost-efficient, is undermining service. They cite as an example Runyon's elimination six weeks ago of an employee involvement process that let carriers have input in issues affecting mail delivery.
``We're can no longer sit back and watch that occur,'' Dowdy said. ``Our workplaces, of course, have reached a point where I'd characterize them as extremely confrontational.''
But Roy Betts, a Postal Service spokesman, says mail service has never been better.
``This kind of activity is not unusual for unions,'' Betts says.
Letter carriers will ask postal customers to critique their service and call post offices if they are not satisfied.
``This is not a strike,'' said Lee T. Copeland, a Suffolk letter carrier and a union representative. ``It's an informational picket about what's going on behind postal service doors.''
Copeland said the National Association of Letter Carriers decided to picket after a meeting in Washington last month. The 318,000-member organization has accused Runyon of mounting a campaign to force wages down and to shrink the number of workers in the Postal Service.
Copeland said some of the new regulations being handed down from Runyon include:
Later starting times for letter carriers. That could result in businesses and residents receiving their mail at dinner time.
Larger work loads, so the postal carriers have more mail to deliver, which could result in more mistakes.
``We just want to inform citizens about the changes,'' Copeland said. ``We want the community to monitor the postal service to make sure they are getting the quality of service they are accustomed to. If they are not, we want them to let the post office and their congressmen know.'' MEMO: Staff writer Lon Wagner and The Wall Street Journal contributed to
this report. by CNB