Friday, November 20, 2009

The Florida Keys' congresswoman has protested staffing reductions at Key West post offices, which have resulted in long lines and waits of 30 to 60 minutes for service.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and her staff have met with U.S. Postal Service (USPS) representatives and asked them to end the mandatory staffing reductions.

Key West post offices have lost 10 postal clerk positions in the past year, said Kathryn dePoo, vice president of the local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union. Required staffing reductions eliminated four positions, while another six recently retired, and Postal Service policies and reductions prohibit their replacement, dePoo said.

"The congresswoman made it clear to USPS officials that their decision to eliminate six full-time clerk positions has had a very negative effect on customer service at this locale," Ros-Lehtinen's press secretary, Alex Cruz, said in a press release this week. "She also believes that the mandatory staffing shortages ... are causing great havoc amongst Key West residents and is not producing the desired results the postal service is seeking."

Ros-Lehtinen said her office has heard from Key West residents and business owners, who are complaining about standing in line at the post office for 30 minutes to one hour. These wait times likely will increase during the holidays and the approaching tourist season as increasingly more people send and receive packages.

"Most of the persons standing in line are doing work related to their businesses, and these unnecessary delays cost them time and money," Ros-Lehtinen said.

It is common for members of Congress to intervene with federal and quasi-federal agencies on behalf of their constituents, said Ros-Lehtinen's spokeswoman, Christine DelPortilla.

"The congresswoman has on several occasions asked the post office to revise its process for conducting staffing assessments. For instance, post office personnel will travel to Key West during the slow month of August and report that there is not enough traffic at the post office to warrant additional staff," DelPortilla said. "Clearly, the population in the Keys fluctuates considerably between August and December. As such, the congresswoman has called on USPS to conduct their assessments during more seasonally appropriate times."

DePoo said people regularly walk out of the post office when they see how long the lines are. She added that local post office officials no longer have enough employees to use standby rooms.

Such a room was used last month in officials' efforts to prove that the same amount of work could be done by fewer people. They would instruct employees to sit in a standby room, where they were not allowed to eat, drink, watch television, talk on the phone or read anything but post office instructional material.

Local officials ended the practice, dePoo said, because once people learned it was happening, those waiting in line would call the postmaster and ask whether there was anyone in the standby room who could come out and help them.

"Now that these other six people retired, there's no one to put in the standby room anyway," dePoo said, adding that Ros-Lehtinen's continued involvement already seems to be getting attention.

The postmaster on Whitehead Street has been allowing three clerks to work the "window" positions rather than two, the number the USPS dictated after it applied its staffing formulas.

"The problem is, their computers underestimate the time it takes us to complete various tasks," dePoo said, explaining that new requirements for sending packages overseas require clerks to enter in all the information the sender writes on the mailing slip.

"This is a downward spiral," she said. "If you don't take care of your customer base, they walk out. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy."

She added that the national mail volume was down this year compared with last year.

"We're only down 9 percent, but we've lost way more than 10 percent of our staff," she said. "How are people justifying that?"

DePoo encouraged anyone who is frustrated by the long lines at the post office to contact Ros-Lehtinen's office at 305-668-2285 or the local postmaster at 305-294-9539.

mbolen@keysnews.com