Sorting out the future

The U.S. Postal Service is beginning a study on whether to consolidate its operations in Northern California, a process that could lead to closing the sorting facility in Olivehurst.

Gus Ruiz, a spokesman for the Postal Service's Sacramento district, said the study, which has no timeline for completion, is in response to a drop in how much mail is being sent, due to the recession.

"With the severe drop in volume, we need to match workload to volume," said Ruiz, who explained the Postal Service is processing 30 billion fewer pieces of mail nationwide these days than it did at its peak in 2006.

But the president of the union representing the facility's 200 workers said, based on what postal officials have previously expressed, the plan to transfer Olivehurst's sorters from the Arboga Road building to a facility in West Sacramento is all but formalized.

"Right now, we're going off the indications that Mr. Ruiz made that said a decision would come in 60 days," said Rick Page, president of American Postal Workers Union Area Local 211, referring to comments he said Ruiz made to other media outlets in recent weeks.

"I'm proceeding as if it's a total closure coming."

Ruiz said that if such a decision is made, the employees in Olivehurst would keep their jobs but need to transfer elsewhere. Page said the sorting facility near the Yuba County Airport has operated since 1998, when sorting was moved from the post office in downtown Marysville.

The Postal Service tried consolidating operations in West Sacramento a few years ago, Page said, but ultimately reopened the Olivehurst site when customers' service was affected.

"They're saying there would be no degradation of service at all, but the past speaks for itself," he said.

Ruiz said he'd acknowledge the previous consolidation didn't work, but added overall volume was much higher then.

As the economy recovers, he added, postal officials don't expect typical first-class mail, in the form of envelopes of business correspondence, to come back in commensurate numbers.

Instead, more and more mail will consist of boxes and packages as people do more shopping through the Internet, Ruiz said. And while the West Sacramento facility is set up to quickly process such mail, the Olivehurst facility's equipment is designed for first-class mail, he added.

"We need to find a better way to use the equipment we have," he said.

Page said he's hoping to rally local support to keep the facility open, adding he's been in contact with the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce and Yuba County.

Until there's some certainty, Page said, the mood at the sorting facility is somber.

"We're a very efficiently-run plant. People are nervous about their jobs," he said.

"Once they shut this place, it'll never come back."

Contact Appeal reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com