The Tampa Remote Encoding Center (REC) is closing as of March 2, 2007. This action will cause the loss of 445 TE positions as well possible excessing outside the Tampa Installation of 110 full time clerk positions.
 
Richard Phillips, Tampa Area Local President, has addressed this issue to the local media. He has personally delivered signed petitions to our representatives in Washington, DC.

The following is an editorial that Richard Phillips submitted to the local paper earlier this month. They failed to publish it. –Tampa APWU Executive Vice President Pat Davis-Weeks.

Editorial: Tampa Rec Closing

As we celebrate this Labor Day weekend, it’s fitting that we also reflect on the alarming number of good jobs that are disappearing from the Tampa Bay area. Headlines have screamed about many good jobs that are being “outsourced” to foreign countries, where labor can be hired on the cheap. In addition, other good local jobs are being relocated throughout the country, for what has been described as “business concerns”.

Take, for example, the U.S. Postal Service’s recent announcement to employees that they have made a decision to close the Tampa Remote Encoding Center (REC) no later than March 2, 2007. This decision will impact almost 600 employees; including data conversion operators, maintenance technicians, and supervisors. Of this number, approximately 445 are in an employment status known as Transitional Employee. These TE’s are scheduled to work anywhere from four to eight hours per day, and earn an average of approximately $13.00 per hour (including night differential).

The U.S. Postal Service will be laying off all 445 of these TE’s by March 2nd. All Bay-area citizens should be inquiring about how the down flow of this “business concern” will impact the rest of the Tampa Bay community. These layoffs will go much deeper than the immediate financial impact on the students, veterans, mothers, fathers, and homemakers who are currently employed as TE’s at the Tampa REC Site. Simply stated, the closing of the Tampa REC Site will remove an annual payroll of approximately $10 million a year from of the Tampa Bay area.

Yet there has not been so much as a whisper about this “business concern” and it’s adverse impact on the employees and the community from the news media. This could be attributed to the fact that Postal Service officials have said that the Tampa REC Site - like all REC’s throughout the country - was set up to be a temporary facility, slated to eventually close someday.

But why Tampa? Why now? The Tampa REC site has been here since 1995, and was one of the original 55 sites nation-wide. It is currently one of only a dozen remaining open. It is one of the most productive facilities in the country, and the employees there have keystrokes-per-hour and error rates far better than Postal Service’s national standards. Why toss out a highly skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced staff in Tampa today, only to relocate and hire new untrained recruits somewhere else - and spend millions of dollars in the process?

The question that needs to asked of the Postal Service by our elected national legislators - those who oversee the decisions made by the Service - is: What “business concern” is answered by this decision? Perhaps, in light of this Labor Day, this question could best be addressed by the words of Abraham Lincoln in a Message to Congress (December 3, 1861):

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration”.

In this observer’s opinion, the most telling statement about the Postal Service’s shift of jobs from Tampa to out-of-state sites came at one of several group meetings of those employees who will be laid off by March 2nd. A Postal Service representative suggested that these employees could uproot their families and apply to work at other REC sites throughout the country that are remaining open at this time. His statement to the group was: “Chattanooga is a great place to live and work”. The quick reply - which should speak loudly to all of our elected local, state, and national officials who have a vested interest in the well being of our community - came from the back of the room: “So is Tampa”.