Las Vegas NowConsolidation Plan Leaves Postal Workers Concerned For Customers

Consolidation Plan Leaves Postal Workers Concerned For Customers

A consolidation plan at post offices could leave you standing in line even longer. That's the message from postal workers protesting changes to the postal system in Las Vegas and nationwide.

Las Vegas Valley postal workers held a rally Thursday urging customers to write to their representatives and ask them to help.

They weren't protesting about getting a better 401k plan, not to increase health care benefits, or ask for more money. Postal workers are being asked to do more with less people. They say that may mean a longer wait at the post office.  

Joe Lewis, local postal union president, said, "It's not about jobs. We already have a no lay off policy. It's strictly about service for the people in Las Vegas and across the nation."

Denise Walker-Hoffman said, "Everybody is tired of having an automated customer service. We are trying to bring regular customer service back. No more machines. No more people doing an answering machine."

Walker-Hoffman works at the Kings Station office on Martin Luther King Boulevard. She says the new Las Vegas postmaster is shifting workers under a new consolidation plan.

Joe Lewis says the rally was about the customers, not the employees. He believes the public needs to know.

"We have gone from two window clerks down to one, or three to two. We just want to let those people know," he added.

By standing on the side of the road, these postal union workers hope the people driving by will write their representatives. They want to put pressure on the local postmaster and this is the most public way they know how to do it.

"People are going to have to wait in line. When people wait in line they get upset. They take it out on our employees," Lewis continued.

The local postmaster's office would not talk about the accusation, instead directed Eyewitness News to a postal spokeswoman in Denver.

She says the post office does the best it can so people don't wait in long lines. She then explained customers have mailing alternatives like getting stamps off the Internet or using the automated machines.

The United States Postal Service is going through a national consolidation plan to streamline mailing.

Send your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence at elawrence@klastv.com