postalnews blog

(The following commentary comes from Dan Sullivan, who frequently contributes to the 21st Century Postal Worker. Opinions expressed are those of the author. To submit a commentary to postalnewsblog.com, email us at postalnews@gmail.com) 

by Dan Sullivan

July 6 - The Postal Service’s Ergonomic Risk Reduction Program (EERP)is premised on a simple lie. As it says on page 2 of the slickly produced booklet promoting EERP, “The Postal Service has a long history of attention to ergonomics.”

Forget about the letter sorting machines that destroyed a generation of postal clerks’ wrists and hands.

Pay no attention to the current automated letter and flat sorting machines that are destroying another generation of workers shoulders and backs.

“The Postal Service has a long history of attention to ergonomics.”

Which is like saying George Bush has a long history of attention to the U.S. Constitution and civil liberties.

Unfortunately for Barbara Brzozowski, this long history of attention to ergonomics hasn’t made the Postal Service a very safe or secure place to work.

Last month the Buffalo, New York postal clerk was thrown out of work under the Postal Service’s Reassessment Program, a scheme to dump injured workers on the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) rolls.

Her only crime appears to be getting hurt while working on one of the ergonomically unsafe flat sorting machines at the General Mail Facility in Buffalo that the USPS pays so much attention to.

Her injury was typical. She’s worked 21 years for the Postal Service and the repetitive lifting of 3^rd class tubs of mail had left her right shoulder a mess. In April 2003 she filed an OWCP injury claim. After a year of therapy and light duty work, she tried to go back to work on the flat sorting machines.

“Each time I attempted to go back to my job, though, the shoulder area would swell and become inflamed again,” she says.

So she was given a job verifying bank mail and mail for local box holders on the night shift.

“Management claimed they had nothing for me to do during the day, though they had off-the-job injured employees working days.”

Then in March 2005 the EERP Coordinator in Buffalo asked for volunteers from the limited duty section to do some light office work. Barb volunteered and got the job. Eventually she began helping out the Safety Specialist and the Medical Emergency Response Team, which shared an office with the EERP Coordinator.

Soon the work was keeping Barb busy eight hours a day.

But unknown to her, the Postal Service was already in the middle of testing a new program to dump injured workers on the OWCP rolls and have the Department of Labor train them for work outside the Postal Service.

One of the first places the Postal Service began testing what it called its Reassessment Program was in the Western New York District, where Barb worked.

She didn’t know it, but soon she would be nothing more than damaged goods to postal bosses.

In December of 2005 the local APWU notified employees that the Reassessment Program was coming to Buffalo. A few days later Barb was told by postal bosses in charge of the program to go to her doctor for an updated medical report.

Barb describes what happened next:

“In January I went to have my records updated and did not hear another word until I got a letter saying to show up for a meeting about the reassessment program. They don’t interview you at all. Nor do they contact any of your current supervisors to see where you are working or if you’re being productive.”

Barb’s meeting was on June 5, 2006. She was met by Mary McNeill, the District boss in charge of getting rid of injured workers, Manager of Distribution Operations (MDO) Mike McMann and two other bosses. She was told there was no work for her, handed some forms and told to complete them and mail them back to the Postal Service.

Barb tried to argue with them by pointing out the work she was doing and questioning them about other work that might be available in Buffalo and elsewhere. But the postal bosses had already made up their mind and weren’t much interested in what she had to say. After the meeting, the bosses confiscated her badge and marched her out of the building.

Since being shown the door, Barb has tried to use annual and sick leave while waiting for her OWCP paper work to get processed. But so far the bosses haven’t acted on her leave request.

She’s trying to use her leave after hearing that some other injured workers are still waiting for their first compensation checks more than seven weeks after being thrown out of work because the postal bosses gave them the wrong information about which forms to fill out.

“One of the other clerks sent her form in and OWCP sent her a letter back asking her why the Post Office had sent her home,” she says.

She’s not sure how many other workers injured on the job in Buffalo and outlying stations have been dumped on OWCP so far.

“There were six of us that went within the first two meetings for sure. I have heard that quite a few were also let go at the stations but that is just through stories that have trickled my way.”

Of course the Postal Service isn’t talking. Postal officials haven’t responded to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act and all questions have been referred to the unions, which they say have been briefed on the outsourcing program.

Sue Carney is the APWU Director of Human Relations. But she doesn’t seem to know much more about the program than anyone else outside the Postal Service.

Right now the Reassessment Program is being tested in the Western New York Region and the Pacific Area. Final approval to go nationwide with the program is expected soon.

“When it is approved, they do not expect a rapid expansion,” Carney says. “It is being estimated that two to three postal districts per year will be reassessed.”

In a recent email she wrote, “We are still raising concerns/pointing to violations with USPS as it relates to this program and our Step 4 dispute. Once I am comfortable that we have all relative information and that it is accurate I anticipate providing a summary report to the local/state presidents and national field officers.”

In the meantime, more and more injured workers like Barb Brzozowski, whose only crime was getting hurt at work, are caught up in the dragnet as managers use the Reassessment Program to quietly sweep away their obligations to injured postal workers.