Postal Service Starts Cutback in Hours Today

By BOB JAMES

Feb. 13, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles area residents intending to go to the post office today may be in for a surprise as postal officials, seeking to cut $160 million from this year’s operating budget, have closed down 21 offices on Saturdays and shortened weekday hours at more than 110 others.

Mail delivery will still continue on Saturdays. However, there will no longer be Sunday pickup or processing, adding a one-day delay to mail delivery during the week.

Eleven post offices in the Los Angeles area will suspend Saturday service for at least the next year and a half. Forty-two offices serving ZIP codes 90200-90899 will open later, close earlier or close for an hour in the early afternoon.

Seventy-two locations in ZIP code areas 91300-91699 will also alter their hours. Post office officials suggest calling the nearest location for details.

U.S. Senate Mandate

The service rollbacks are in response to a congressional mandate to cut $1.2 billion from the Postal Service budget over the next two years without raising rates. The budget reconciliation package signed by President Reagan in December dictates that half of the cuts must come from operating budgets and half from capital expenditures.

First-class postage rates, however, will still rise from 22 to 25 cents in April, according to David Mazer, spokesman for the Los Angeles Division of the U.S. Postal Service, since this increase was requested before the budget cuts were ordered.

Although postal employees may receive smaller paychecks due to schedule changes and reductions in overtime, no layoffs will occur, Mazer said. “There will be a slowdown in hiring, but we promised the (American Postal Workers Union) there would be no layoffs.”

But despite Postal Service promises of no layoffs, Omar Gonzales, Los Angeles president of the American Postal Workers Union, representing 4,425 workers, said the union is unhappy with the cutbacks.

“We are having a considerable amount of problems with the rescheduling of employees and the slotting of positions,” Gonzales said, adding that post office management is not giving employees enough opportunities to choose new assignments, is unnecessarily abolishing positions and is “curtailing the mobility of workers” by not posting open positions.

Gonzales said that despite Postal Service claims, there will be a large impact on service. He said morale and productivity will go down as workers “begin to feel the brunt of their new assignments.”

“When you have your schedule modified and have to change your entire family structure, it has a real impact upon morale,” Gonzales said.

The cancellation of Saturday hours will have the biggest impact in the San Fernando Valley where residents of Canoga Park and North Hollywood will have to go to stations in Chatsworth and Van Nuys, respectively.

The closest location open on Saturday for those using the Burbank Main Station on North Hollywood Way is actually Dana Drugstore on Pass Avenue in Burbank, a contract facility authorized to do official Postal Service business.

The supervisor for the Burbank station said the new hours will be a problem for customers since the nearest official post office is nearly 10 miles away. He added, however, that he had not heard any customer complaints.

Sunday mail pickup and processing will be suspended across the country. Mazer said Sunday mail accounts for 1.5% of all mail so the impact on the system will be “minimal.”

CLOSED ON SATURDAY

The following post offices in Los Angeles County will be closed on Saturdays starting today. Alternative locations open on Saturday are listed in parentheses after each closed facility. Locations in boldface type (*) are contract stations authorized to do postal business but not run by the U.S. Postal Service.

LOS ANGELES CITY DISTRICT (ZIP CODES 90000-90100) Village/11000 Wilshire Blvd.

West Los Angeles/11420 Santa Monica Blvd.)

Rancho Park/10587 W. Pico

(Preuss/1270 S. Alford)

Wilcox/6457 Santa Monica Blvd.

(Hollywood/1615 Wilcox Ave.)

Lincoln Heights/3001 N. Broadway

(Terminal Annex/900 N. Alameda St.)

La Tijera/5472 Crenshaw Blvd.

(Crenshaw/3894 Crenshaw Blvd.)

Westchester/8635 Kittyhawk Ave.

(World Way Postal Center/5880 W. Century Blvd.)