Postal workers picket post office

Despite a blistering sun, more than 30 postal workers picketed Thursday outside a Brownsville post office voicing  grievances to customers.

Wearing white T-shirts with matching caps and carrying placards, letter carriers spoke with incoming customers and waved at passing cars.

The postal carriers stood outside the post office at 1535 Los Ebanos Blvd. and voiced disapproval of the management practices implemented by Jeff Jenkins, the postmaster in Brownsville, and his management team.

Such practices are “inhumane,” said Carlos Rodriguez, a postal carrier and executive vice-president for the local chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

“We are here to protest some absurd management practices that have put undue pressure on us and have resulted in us giving bad service to our customers,” Rodriguez said.

U.S. Postal Service management in Brownsville declined to comment on the matter, referring all comments to the regional spokesperson, James Coultress.

“We realize that from time to time, employees disagree with situations or decisions made in the regular course of doing business in the Postal Service,” Coultress said in a prepared statement. “However, an employee’s work performance is defined by the negotiated national agreement, and therefore all of our employees are treated equally and fairly.”

Coultress further added, “Harassment of any sort is strictly against the policy of the U.S. Postal Service. ... When any charges of harassment are received, they are investigated and if substantiated are dealt with appropriately up to and including suspension or dismissal.”

Union members from the NALC and the American Postal Workers Union traveled from San Antonio, Houston and Victoria  to take part in the day-long protest and support their fellow post office workers.

“We are here to support their cause,” said Ethel Ford, a Houston postal worker.  “We don’t agree with the repressive tactics that are used against our brothers.”

Customer Joe Rodriguez, who is not related to the union spokesman, agreed with the postal workers as he walked into the post office to drop off some packages.

“I’ve had a post office box here since 1996 and I have had some very bad experiences,” Rodriguez said. “The lines are always very long and when you try to complain they are very rude.”

As a union leader, Carlos Rodriguez said he has firsthand knowledge of grievances filed against the postmaster.

Issues mentioned in the grievances handled by Rodriguez include verbal abuse, unreasonable work schedules and poor customer service, he said.

“In 2008, we saw 255 grievances and so far this year we have seen over 100,” said Rodriguez, referring to grievances filed by postal workers in Brownsville. “This is ridiculous, but one postal carrier was reprimanded for going to the restroom. He had to prove that he actually went to the restroom and that he wasn’t goofing off. The poor guy went to fish out ‘paper evidence’ that he had actually used the restroom.”