NEWS
MARcH 2, 2012 Marina facility that closed about seven years ago. The Redondo Avenue mail facility is within the Long Beach city limits, but the loss of so many employees troubles Signal Hill Mayor Larry Forester. The City wrote a letter to Laura Richardson, who represents the 37th U.S. Congressional District on the matter. Forester also expressed concern for the future of the main postal office for Signal Hill. “From the standpoint of the city, it’s very critical that we have a local post office for our citizens to go to,” Forester said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He added that, if in the future the Postal Service chooses to close the post office entirely, he would like for the City to help find a new location for the post office in Signal Hill. Signal Hill doesn’t have its own post office, but it has a special tie to the facility on Redondo Avenue. Forester said the city does have its own ZIP code,
Richardson released a statement Wednesday indicating that the concontinued from page 1 gresswoman supports proposed legislation that seeks to prevent closure of post ices at this time. Maher confirmed that, offices in high-poverty and high-unemfor now, the Redondo Avenue facility ployment areas and addresses other will still offer retail service, access to postal service issues, including the post office box services, and business retiree health benefits issue raised by the mail entry service. Carrier delivery Postal Service. units will still report there to prepare Since the final disposition of the mail for delivery. facility is yet to be determined, it’s too The threat of the plant’s closure, soon to talk about the real estate, however, affects the future of hundreds according to Maher. The question of of local employees. According to whether to sell all or part of the Maher, about 686 employees at the Redondo Avenue facilities would Redondo Avenue facilities are working require further analysis, Maher said. He at that processing unit. confirmed that the Postal Service plans “The Postal Service will make to continue to use the facility for its every effort to reassign employees to retail services for now. other positions,” Maher said. He also In addition to the proposal to close acknowledged that the agency is also processing centers throughout the coundiscussing retirement incentives with try, Maher confirmed that there is also a the unions since about 54 percent of the separate proposal that would change employees are eligible to retire. how quickly a first-class letter can be A spokesperson for the delivered. local chapter of the National “The movement of mail-proPostal Mailhandlers Union cessing units operations in and of (NPMHU) said he and othitself will not slow down the ers believed that the Postal mail,” Maher said, “but the Service is just waiting for Postal Service has proposed to the May 15 moratorium change first-class mail delivery deadline to pass before they standards nationwide. Now, if move forward with the that is approved and impleplans to close the facility. mented, the time it takes to “It’s not a wise decision. deliver mail would change If the Postal Service was regardless whether the mail is trying to do the best thing processed in Long Beach or Los for the American public, Angeles. And it would change they would not be closing whether we close that plant or the plant,” said Eddie whether it would open.” Cowan in an interview last He said that the proposed File photo Friday. Cowan serves as the president of the local chap- The post office located at 2300 Redondo Ave. in Long Beach change eliminates the overnight ter of the union that solely was named in honor of Steve Horn, who was responsible for delivery of local mail nationwide and that all first-class mail would represents the mailhandlers. Signal Hill acquiring its own ZIP code. be delivered in two or three days. He estimated that about “So what that would mean is, if 130 of the mailhandlers he represents thanks “100 percent” to the efforts of have tenures of around 20 to 25 years, former Rep. Steve Horn. That post you’re in Signal Hill and you mail a and some may have up to 30 years with office is named after the former con- [first-class] letter to Long Beach, it gressman who passed away last year. would not be delivered overnight,” the Postal Service. According to Congressional record, Maher said. “But if you’re in Signal Hill He added that it’s not the first time that some of the workers have faced the new ZIP code was sanctioned by the and you mail a letter to New York, it closure. Some of the employees had Postal Service in January 2002 and took would be delivered in the same amount of time as it is today, three days.” been transferred from the Inglewood effect that June.
Post Office
SIgNAL TRIBuNE Whether or not Long Beach keeps its processing unit, there still might be change to how mail gets delivered, according to Maher. “Even if the decision was made to keep Long Beach open, but they did change the service standards, there would still be no local overnight delivery of first-class letters,” Maher said. He emphasized that the closure of the mailprocessing facilities is a separate issue from the proposed service standards for delivery. “That said,” Maher added, “the closure of about 250 facilities nationwide could not be done unless we change service standards.” The agency is waiting for advisement from the Postal Regulatory Com-
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mission on this particular proposal, he said, adding that those proposed changes would not affect other services like Priority Mail and Express Mail if customers need overnight delivery. The Postal Service spokesperson acknowledged that the Postal Service of the future must change. “But we believe that, with the proper changes through comprehensive legislation, that the Postal Service can remain a strong cornerstone of the American economy and continue to provide service to every community in the U.S.” Maher said. “But we do have to change. We have to be smaller and leaner and more efficient and more competitive as we move into this century.”
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