Encoding center workers might have to go 750 miles to stay with postal service

U.S. Postal Service human resources representatives will return to the Beaumont Remote Encoding Center next week as the agency tries to soften the blow for the more than 900 employees who will lose their jobs when the center closes in November, a postal service spokesman said.

While workers await official individual notices to leave, U.S. Rep. Ted Poe continues his push to stop the closure, and Jefferson County commissioners might decide in coming months what they will do with the building once the government leaves.

The postal service officially announced April 20 that the Beaumont center would close by November after 13 years of operation.

Workers at the center – which is at the old Texas State Optical building at the corner of Forsythe and Pearl streets in downtown Beaumont – remotely affix address codes to mail via computer screens to help mail move more efficiently.

About 1 million images are processed there daily, and the postal service had praised the center’s workers for their output, according to The Enterprise archives.

Advances in technology have closed all but 10 of the 55 such centers nationwide.

Officials said at the time that the center’s 344 career employees and 16 managers would get a chance to transfer to other positions within the postal service within 100 miles of Beaumont.

Postal service spokesman Dave Lewin said Thursday that the range could be up to 750 miles.

Lewin also said that he hopes career employees would “make every effort to be proactive” in finding new jobs.

The 549 part-time employees would get one shot at passing the postal service exam and being absorbed into other jobs within the system.

None of the center’s employees have received any official individual notices, Lewin said.

“That might not occur until a little closer in (to November),” Lewin said. “This is a six-month notification process.”

Poe, R-Humble, forwarded a letter last month to postal service senior vice president Thomas G. Day that slammed the agency for the timing of its decision as Southeast Texas continues to recover from Hurricane Rita.

Poe also took issue with the postal service for keeping himself and area leaders out of the loop while the agency considered closing the facility.

In an e-mailed statement sent Thursday, Poe said his office had recently received a response.

“Unfortunately, we got the same song and dance as before, claiming it was a business decision based on operating costs, facility costs, lease expiration dates and the availability of other (centers) to absorb the workload,” Poe said in a statement.

Poe said his staff has met with members of the American Postal Workers Union Local No. 469 and will continue to work with the group to fight the closure.

The union will host a meeting with encoding center workers this weekend to discuss the closure, union president Angela Walters said.

The postal service leases the building from Jefferson County.

County commissioners likely will discuss the building’s future during a workshop in coming months, said Precinct 1 Commissioner Eddie Arnold, whose precinct houses the encoding center.

The county has a couple of options.

The county could use the building for some other purpose, sell it or find another private business to lease to, he said.

The latter would put the building back on the tax rolls and generate revenue for the county, he said.

“I think those are the key issues we’ll have to make a decision on,” Arnold said.