MANATEE — Congressman Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, has pledged to fight for the employees at the Manasota U.S. Postal Service Distribution Center as they brace for the possible re-routing of jobs and mail to a Tampa distribution center.
Buchanan and local politicians toured the center on Tallevast Road Tuesday in response to the recent announcement of a cost-cutting study by the Postal Service. It has aroused workers’ fears that the center could be closed altogether, putting its more than 350 employees out of a job.
Postal Service officials denied during the tour that there are any plans to close the center.
“I have been assured there is absolutely no plan to close this facility,” said Buchanan. “I came here because I was concerned about the loss of jobs, and I am committed to fighting to keep these jobs here.”
Instead, postal officials told Buchanan that the study is an effort to look into re-routing only outgoing letters and cards mailed from Bradenton and Sarasota to Tampa for distribution.
Postal Service officials said the plan could affect 30 to 40 employees, but assured the congressman no jobs would be lost, Buchanan said after the tour.
Instead, if the plan is approved, those employees would face transfer to Tampa or re-training for other duties, according to Postal Service spokesman Gary Sawtelle.
Sawtelle said the Postal Service is merely reacting to tough economic conditions and technology such as online bill paying that has people mailing a lot less. He said last year the Postal Service overall received 9 billion fewer pieces of mail, with the Manasota center losing millions.
But more than a dozen union members who attended the press conference remained skeptical and decried the strain on employees they say a transfer would bring.
“They will still be taking us out of our lives and making us commute long distances,” said Manasota American Postal Workers Union member Mark Teseniar. “We are here for the workers because this is going to bring a whole new set of expenses and struggles to these families.”
Teseniar works at the center and said he not only worries for his fellow workers, but he warned that service to the community could suffer. He outlined a scenario that also raised eyebrows among politicians at the center.
For instance, should the plan go through, a letter mailed by someone in Bradenton to a Bradenton address would go to the Manasota center, up to Tampa, and back to Manasota to be placed into a mail carrier’s bag in Manatee.
“You can’t tell me that is going to be a better level of service,” said Bradenton City Councilman Patrick Roff, who took the tour with Buchanan. “I have always been able to mail a letter from Bradenton and have it get to someone in Bradenton the same day, and I want it to stay that way.”
Buchanan echoed Roff’s assessment.
“It doesn’t seem like a terribly efficient way to do it,” he said.
Sawtelle said addressing those types of concerns are the purpose of the study, and that nothing has been set in stone.
“That is why we are doing a study. We are looking for ways to cut costs, but if we find out through the study that service levels would go down, we are not going to make those changes,” he said.
Sawtelle said the study is to be completed by Dec. 31, and the results will be presented at a town hall meeting. Administrators then will make a decision to move forward or not, he said.
Both employees and politicians at the center expressed fears of a knee-jerk reaction to a struggling economy. Roff specifically opposed removing expensive equipment from the center along with employee transfers to Tampa.
“I can certainly predict a population boom in this area as baby boomers retire and the economy recovers. And with the equipment and employees gone, I can see us back here having to figure out how to meet that need,” said Roff.
Buchanan also called for the measured pulling of manpower and equipment out, if needed.
“I want to make sure we don’t pull back too much and when the economy picks up we don’t have enough workers here,” he said.
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