Postal workers demand closure of buildings

Postal workers demanded the closing of an anthrax-contaminated sorting center in New York and the shutdown of other postal installations for precautionary testing Friday, threatening to sue if necessary.

"If it's possible to close down Congress and test there for bacteria, they should close down this building, too," said William Smith, a union local president in New York City, where anthrax was found on four machines at a major sorting center. "I do believe that taking the time is more important than taking people's lives."

The mail has become a key focus for investigators tracking the source of the nation's anthrax outbreak, which has killed three people since Oct. 5 -- two of them postal workers in Washington.

Anthrax has been found at the biggest mail processing plants in both Washington and New York, four mail centers in Florida and one in New Jersey. The Washington, New Jersey and Florida installations were closed for decontamination, and the Florida ones have since reopened.

"People are scared," said Bill Bachmann, a 51-year-old employee at the New York sorting center.

Kathy Huggins, a Postal Service spokeswoman in Orlando, Fla., said the agency has taken the necessary steps to ensure the safety of its workers.

Citing the advice of health officials, the Postal Service also said there is no need to close the New York plant, which handles all mail for Manhattan and the Bronx -- about 20 million pieces of mail a day.

"The building itself is very safe," Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan said. "We've cordoned off one area where the machines are, but the head of CDC and EPA have said that is not a health problem."

So far, more than 10,000 people have been given antibiotics as a precaution against anthrax, many of them postal workers.

William Burrus, president-elect of American Postal Workers Union, said he is against the closing of postal installations for precautionary testing. He also called strikes and lawsuits "counterproductive."

But at a funeral in Maryland for one of the two Washington postal workers, he also warned: "Our members will not work in a postal facility that is confirmed as contaminated."

There were no reports of any widespread walkouts Friday, though about 50 postal workers picketed in Jersey City, N.J. Postal employees in New York City said some of their colleagues didn't show up to work.

The scare has opened a rift in the postal workers union, the nation's largest with 366,000 members.

Some union officials have accused postal officials of failing to quickly address anthrax fears at mail facilities, but Burrus downplayed the anthrax fears.

"It is terrible that two employees have given their lives serving the American public, but we will lose more employees to flu this year," he said.

Judy Johnson, president of the union's Miami local, said a lawsuit would be filed Monday seeking binding arbitration with the Postal Service over several safety proposals.

The proposals include equipping all regional mail sorting facilities with machines that use electron beams and X-rays to kill anthrax spores and other germs. Postal Service officials have said they are working to obtain machines that could sanitize the mail.

The Miami local represents 3,300 employees, including some who handled mail for supermarket tabloid publisher American Media in Boca Raton, Fla.

An employee there was the outbreak's first fatality.

Johnson also said that postal buildings that serve government offices, large businesses, media organizations, wealthy neighborhoods and Jewish communities should be closed until they are tested because they are likely targets of terrorists.

That suggestion drew sharp criticism from Burrus.

"This suggestion that we close postal facilities is insane. Who is going to pay the employees? Who is going to service the American public?" Burrus said.

A spokesman for the National Association of Letter Carriers, which has 241,000 members, said there were no plans for legal action.

At the Trenton, N.J., regional center, mail handlers and carriers worked out of heated tents in a parking lot Friday. The building has been sealed off as an anthrax "hot zone" and crime scene.

In New York, union attorneys said they would go to federal court to shut down the contaminated Manhattan processing plant.

"Close the facility, test the people, clean it up and send people back when it's safe," union attorney Louis Nikolaidis said of the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center, which remained open to its 5,000 employees.

The Postal Service said absenteeism at the Morgan center was no higher Friday than the normal 6 percent to 7 percent. But one worker coming off a midnight-to 8:30 a.m. shift said the rate was much higher.

"There's a lot missing from all floors," said Keith Kirk, a machine clerk. And "the crew that just came in looks like a skeleton crew."