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Letter to the editor

An outcry over outsourcing

Hiring contractors is nothing new, the Postal Service says. The carriers still don't like it.

By Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer
Published June 28, 2007

Dressed in their familiar blue uniforms, letter carriers picketed in the Tampa Bay area and across the state Wednesday to defend what they say is a tradition under attack.

The carriers, about 200 in Tampa and St. Petersburg, were protesting an increasing but little-known practice of the U.S. Postal Service to privatize mail delivery by signing contracts with private companies to do the work. Those carriers are paid less, work on a temporary basis and do not receive benefits.

The unionized carriers believe the policy is a threat to the personal, dedicated service they say they're proud to provide.

"The Postal Service thinks that they're saving money in the long term, but it's just a short-term savings," said Jim Good, president of the Tampa chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers. "They're going to lose the trust of the American people."

Gary Sawtelle, a Postal Service spokesman, said the contractors and their hires undergo the same background checks as regular workers. He said the policy is nothing new: The Postal Service has used non-employees to deliver mail since 1785.

"It's primarily a strategy we're using to keep mail affordable," Sawtelle said. "This is one way that we're going to control costs."

The Postal Service hires contractors only when a route is opened in a recently developed area, Sawtelle said. Only three of the 730 carrier routes in the St. Petersburg area are served by independent contractors. In the Tampa area, nine of the 616 routes are served by contractors.

But the picketers on Wednesday had a sense of anxiety about their jobs and the direction of the Postal Service. They waved signs that read, "Protect the sanctity of your mail" and "We deliver. Will they?"

They shouted "Hey hey, ho ho, contracting out has got to go!" Cars drove by with horns blaring.

Pat Pattie, 52, met her husband of 26 years as he was delivering mail to the apartment complex office where she worked in Seminole. She said she came to the protest to support the work that's helped her family make a living.

"It takes away jobs," she said about contracting. "My husband has worked long and hard here."

Protests were held at the main St. Petersburg post office, the Tampa airport post office and 14 other locations statewide.

Stephanie Garry can be reached at sgarry@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2374.

[Last modified June 27, 2007, 22:48:45]