U.S. HELPS FILL VOID IN UPS STRIKE.Byline: Eric Leach Daily News Staff Writer It's a little like an earthquake and a lot like Christmas at Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. U.S. postal facilities this August, with employees working on their days off and officials hiring hundreds of extra workers to cope with the UPS strike. The local scene mirrors that in post offices across the country - all managed out of a Washington, D.C., computerized command center, across town from the United Parcel Service United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS), commonly referred to as UPS, is the world's largest package delivery company, delivering more than 15 million packages[1] a day to 6.1 million customers in over 200 countries and territories around the world. strike talks. Postal managers are coordinating the response to the extra demand created by the UPS strike from this war room usually operated only during the holiday crunch. Northridge Postmaster postmaster - The electronic mail contact and maintenance person at a site connected to the Internet or UUCPNET. Often, but not always, the same as the admin. The Internet standard for electronic mail (RFC 822) requires each machine to have a "postmaster" address; usually it is Anita Plata said her employees are working overtime and not complaining. ``It's kind of like when you have an earthquake - everybody pulls together,'' Plata said. ``Everybody says, `I can do this. I can take this extra work.' They know our customers are counting on us.'' She also compared the situation to a major holiday rush. ``Basically the only thing different is the Christmas lights aren't out,'' Plata said. David Mazer, manager of corporate relations for the U.S. Postal Service The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) processes and delivers mail to individuals and businesses within the United States. The service seeks to improve its performance through the development of efficient mail-handling systems and operates its own planning and engineering programs. in Los Angeles, said he was happy to get extra business, but not quite this much. ``We don't want or need all of the UPS business. We can't handle it,'' he said. ``They carry 80 percent of the country's parcels, and we can't do that. ``We've had to hire hundreds more people at our bulk mail and air mail facilities in the Los Angeles area - all temporary jobs.'' Eli Wilson was at Plata's post office Friday shipping packages for Nonie of Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. , an area company that manufactures skin care products with a factory in Northridge. ``The Postal Service postal service, arrangements made by a government for the transmission of letters, packages, and periodicals, and for related services. Early courier systems for government use were organized in the Persian Empire under Cyrus, in the Roman Empire, and in medieval has done a really good job - no problems. Our packages have arrived right on time.'' Wilson said his company has used the Postal Service in the past, but normally ships most of its parcels with UPS. Many companies across the nation also were reporting good results from the Postal Service. Sales volume has decreased by 10 percent to 30 percent at some mail-order catalog companies since the UPS strike because of customers' reluctance to order, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a survey published by The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times on Friday. But most of the mail-order companies that were questioned by the Times said they were being well-served by the U.S. Postal Service, with only minor delays if any. Mazer and Plata said that in the Los Angeles area the U.S. Postal Service's express mail, which has guaranteed overnight delivery, has experienced a 70 percent increase in volume. Priority mail, with two- to three-day delivery, has increased 50 percent in volume, and parcel post parcel post, sending of packages through the mail service. At the congress of the Universal Postal Union in Paris in 1878, an international parcel-post system was established. , with about five days' delivery across the country, has increased 20 percent. Mazer said overtime varies from post office to post office, with employees in areas like Northridge and Woodland Hills required to put in more overtime than others because of a high number of parcel deliveries from business to business. In Washington, the Postal Service put the command center into 24-hour operation the day the Teamsters Teamsters large, powerful union of U. S. truckers. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2703] See : Labor struck UPS. Postal Vice President Nicholas Barranca bar·ran·ca also bar·ran·co n. pl. bar·ran·cas also bar·ran·cos Southwestern U.S. 1. A deep ravine or gorge. 2. A bluff. estimated that the post office is handling between 15 percent and 20 percent of United Parcel Service's 12 million-piece daily business. That means between 1.8 million and 2.4 million extra items per day. ``We had a million pounds of mail in the system the night before last,'' Barranca said of the network of leased planes handling express and some priority mail. That's more than during the Christmas season, postal officials report, though the volume of first class and other mail is not as high as the holiday season. The UPS strike ``has been a good experience for us,'' Barranca said. ``It's an opportunity for customers who didn't do business with us, or only gave us a small part of their business, to experience the service we can offer. ``I think some of it will stay,'' he said of the new business shifted from former UPS customers. UPS speculates that the company has lost so much business permanently that it will have to cut 15,000 jobs. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) Mikiko Uehara ships a package to Kentucky at the U.S. Postal Service branch in Northridge on Friday. Tina Gerson/Daily News |
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