Post office proposal to move mail sorting to Pasco causes stir

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A cost-saving plan by the U.S. Postal Service to sort Yakima Valley mail in Pasco is causing a stir among postal workers and customers.

In effort to combat declining revenue, the Postal Service once again is contemplating moving its Yakima mail-sorting operations from the main Post Office on Washington Avenue to Pasco.

The move -- which is expected to save nearly $1.2 million -- could eliminate as many as 19 jobs, move up local pickup times by an hour and change the postmark from Yakima to Pasco on most outgoing mail.

Postal Service officials expect to explain their plan at a public meeting next week. It's no secret that the mail volume has been declining in the digital age, creating excess capacity. The Postal Service is self-funded, which means it must generate its own revenue and pay its own expenses.

While the quasi-governmental agency says moving sorting operations roughly 85 miles away will have little impact on delivery times and that efforts are being made to avoid layoffs, some postal workers and customers aren't buying it.

A similar plan about four years ago was scrapped after considerable opposition, including congressional skepticism about the purported savings and effect on mail service.

Window clerk Jim Keck at the post office on Third Street said mail from more than 26 cities and towns in rural areas stretching from Cle Elum to Mabton is sorted in Yakima.

"It's a big area," he said. "We are relatively isolated and in the winter the roads do get bad and that could cause some (delivery) delays," Keck said.

Resident Fay Eisenzimmer said she fears delivery will be pushed into the evening and doesn't want to be checking her mailbox after dark during the winter when days are shorter.

Postal Service spokesman Ernie Swanson in Seattle said talk that delivery times to Yakima will be later is unfounded. Mail will be sorted by routes in Pasco prior to arriving in Yakima, where carriers will receive it in a timely manner, he said.

"It shouldn't make any difference," he said. "Mail should get out on the street at the same time -- there should be no difference in that."

Some residents and businesses are also worried that earlier pickup times will delay mail they need to get out. The last pickup for most drop-offs in the Yakima Valley is 5 p.m., while the last pickup at the post office on Washington Avenue, where mail is now sorted, is 7 p.m.

Having the 5 p.m. time shifted to 4 p.m. would put a crimp in most days for Tamara Prater, a marketer at a downtown property title company. She said she's constantly getting information on properties from Yakima County late in the afternoon that has to be postmarked the same day.

"We're going to have to figure something out," she said.

Having local mail sent to Pasco to be sorted and returned for delivery just doesn't make sense to some customers.

"I think it's kind of stupid to take our mail all the way to Pasco," said Jan Baughman, a store cashier. "So they hire people down there and take away the business from here."

Losing the Yakima postmark stamp will also cause some problems, said David Hawkins, a Yakima janitor, who wondered what people receiving mail from him will think when they see a Pasco postmark.

"'Did he move? Why is that happening?'" he said. "People mailing out of Yakima should be identified as Yakima (residents), not Pasco."

Only mail personally dropped off to the window clerk in town will retain that city's postal mark, Swanson said. If it's dropped in a box, the mail will be postmarked in Pasco.

Having workers here move to Pasco for jobs also hurts the local economy, Keck said.

"That's quite a loss to the community because we make a reasonable wage," he said. "That's a lot to take out of the community."

The median annual pay for mail processors is $50,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Swanson said some workers will remain at their local offices while others would have the option to work in Pasco or elsewhere. But he couldn't say how many of the 19 employees faced layoffs or would have employment options.

Keck questions the savings if workers are simply transferred, idling the large sorting area at the main Washington Avenue facility, which employs about 70 people.

"If they're doing this to save money and they are relocating employees, then how are they saving money?" he questions. "That's just one question we have."

Swanson said managers in other areas have left unfilled jobs open by attrition. Those jobs would go to affected workers, he said.

"They would have priority over anyone else," he said.

The American Postal Workers Union represents clerks and workers in maintenance, motor vehicles and support services. The National Postal Mail Handlers Union also represents Yakima-area postal employees.

Public meeting on proposed Postal Service changes
■ When: 6 p.m. July 21
■ Where: The Howard Johnson Plaza, 9 N. Ninth St., Yakima

*Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749, or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.