Postal workers doubt delivery cuts, layoffs

BOSTON—A proposed cut in mail delivery, resulting in fewer jobs and work hours, is unlikely to pass, said local postal service workers.

Though the postmaster general John Potter asked Congress last week to cut weekly mail delivery by one day, letter carrier Ray Gaudet said job losses would be too great for the cut to pass. Gaudet estimated cutting a day of work would eliminate 18 percent of the U.S. Postal Service workforce.


“Obama would not lay off 43,000 people,” Gaudet said. “There’s always been talk, but in one year, there’s still going to be six days of delivery.”

Gaudet, as he was unloading packages from his truck in front of the Kenmore Square Post Office, said that the carriers work five days a week while another employee covers everyone’s day off. With one less day of delivery, all the employees covering the sixth day would lose their jobs.

If the day of delivery cut were Saturday, workers inside the post office would lose jobs, as well, said retail associate Ed DeMattio, who works behind the counter. With no work on the weekends, the weekdays would be overstaffed, and the most junior members would face layoffs, he said.

“We’re in the red; we’ve lost quite a bit of money,” DeMattio, who is the least senior associate of the Kenmore Square Post Office, said. “But I don’t think it will go through.”

DeMattio said every time there is a dip in the economy, the idea of cutting a delivery day resurfaces. The agency wants to save gasoline as well as money spent on wages, he said.

The USPS has been losing the most money because of declining stamp sales, DeMattio said. People are increasingly paying their bills online and using email instead of sending letters and Christmas cards. The USPS has already eliminated stamp vending machines and the jobs that maintained them a year ago.

The extra services postal workers offer every customer, including delivery confirmation, fast delivery and protection for fragile packages, are aimed at making up for money lost, DeMattio said. Post offices also make a lot of money on postal supplies like packaging products.

The union is working against the proposal with meetings, forums and lists of grievances, but a movement against the cut has only just begun, DeMattio said.

At the Kendall Square Post Office in Cambridge, sales and service associate Lisa Mullins said the cut would only affect mail carriers, not the retail offices. She said the carriers in Cambridge work six days a week, and they earn overtime pay on the sixth day.

“The mail volume is a lot lower than it used to be because of the economy,” Mullins said.

The USPS has been hiring carriers for one year without benefits and overtime pay to cover the full-time job layoffs, Mullins said. The proposal, if passed, would probably cut mail delivery on Tuesday or Saturday, but retail offices would stay open both days, she said.

“Businesses may have a problem with is, especially if the day cut is during the week,” Mullins said.

Banks would have to make several adjustments if mail delivery were cut, said Paloma Gillis, banking center manager for Bank of America at 775 Commonwealth Ave. She said although many customers pay bills online, the bank still has to mail checks to transfer that money to the companies.

“It sounds scary for us if we don’t receive mail every day,” Gillis said. “People send checks every day.”

Gillis said that if the USPS cut a day of delivery, companies would have to allow the bank a longer window to send payments. Customers would be affected even more, she said, because they depend on ATM cards and checks coming in the mail.

Linda Mobbs, branch manager for Citizens Bank on Commonwealth Ave., said her company has not mentioned the possibility of fewer delivery days. She said most transactions are made online now, because “it’s the new age.”

Paul Houle, assistant manager for the Citizens Bank in Kenmore Square, said he had not even heard about the postmaster general’s proposal. He said the move would affect customers more than the bank, but not significantly, because everything would simply be a day later.

The USPS is the biggest customer of Federal Express, said Damon Levin, project coordinator at FedEx Kinko’s on Cummington St. If the proposal were to pass, he said, FedEx would not be affected but by default.

“It’s just going to make us a more attractive option,” Levin said. “We’re already fast; it’s just going to make us faster.”

Despite any speculation, USPS mail carrier Caudet still said he doubts the USPS would make any changes, because the agency has been operating with six delivery days for 200 years.

“There’s too much that relies on the postal service every day, like banks, mortgages and credit cards,” Gaudet said. “If they were coming late, it would be a domino effect.”