CINCINNATI -- Postal workers picketed outside of the Dalton Avenue post office Monday afternoon to protest job cutbacks the day before the national postal workers union starts contract negotiations in Washington.
Members of American Postal Workers Union Local 164 said about 50 clerk jobs within the Interstate 275 loop haven't been filled since 2015. They said that's leading to longer waits in post offices.
Mike Smith, the Local 164 president, said the personnel shortages are hitting low-income and rural areas especially hard.
"It's a death cycle," he said. "When you're in the service business and you cut service, you're apt to get less business and then you'll want to cut it again. And the fallacy is that we're losing money."
In a statement, a Postal Service spokesperson said it "is committed to providing excellent service to its customers.
"We respect our employees' rights to express their opinions while on their personal time and want to reassure customers that service will not be affected by this demonstration," the spokesperson said.
On Friday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it was studying privatizing the Postal Service. A report is due in August.
"We believe that the Postal Service is a treasure," he said. "It's in the Constitution - Article 1. So it's a 230-year-old institution that belongs to the people.
