12/21/06 SF Labor TV Show: Going Postal Again:San Francisco Postal Workers Speak Out

Labor On The Job Presents
On
12/21/2006 Thursday 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
On
San Francisco Comcast Channel 29

Going Postal Again

On November 28, 2006 two postal workers died in San Francisco. Postal worker and National Association Letter Carrier 214 member Julius Tart who had been an employee since 1988 had been disciplined for not finishing his work on time. A massive speedup is going on within the postal system with automation and increased pressure on the workers to mold themselves to the machines. Many postal workers are forced to work at night delivering mail in the dark.
Weeks after being written up by his supervisor Genevieve Paez, Julius Tart went to her house and killed her. He then committed suicide. This incident shocked some postal workers but did not surprise others. SF Postal workers talk about the stressful and deadly conditions in the post office and why postal workers feel they have no future. They also discuss why they feel they are being terrorized.
A note by Julius Tart was found later addressed to his mother referred to himself in the past tense and complained about conditions at work.
Also Labor On The Job will program a short video segment from the Royal Oaks, Michigan postal murders that led to deaths on the job in 1992. That LOJ show which was programmed on 2/27/1992 was titled "The Deadly Connection, Postal Workers, Stress And Murder On The Job.


"Labor On The Job" is programmed the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month on San Francisco Cable Channel 29 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM. "Labor On The Job" is also the longest running labor cable show in the United States since 1983. It is produced and programmed by the Labor Video Project in San Francisco. The Labor Video Project also produces "Labor Line" which is programmed every Wednesday from 8:30 PM to 9:00 PM on San Francisco Comcast Cable channel 29.
Labor On The Job also programmed on Philadelphia Drexel TV 54 every Wednesday 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM and St. Louis cable systems on on cable ch. 22 in the "City" of St. Louis Fridays at 9:00 PM
The Labor Video Project also produces labor documentaries and is part of the Union Producers and Programmers Network
(UPPNET) http://www.uppnet.org


Labor Video Project
P.O.Box 720027
San Francisco,CA 94172
Phone (415)282-1908 Fax (415)695-1369
lvpsf [at] labornet.org


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/14/BAGHCMVH831.DTL&hw=postal+worker&sn=001&sc=1000

SAN FRANCISCO
Postal workers remember slain supervisor and dead carrier
50 take part in vigil to reflect on their lives and friendship <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/14/BAGHCMVH831.DTL>
- Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:jvanderbeken [at] sfchronicle.com>
Thursday, December 14, 2006

More than 50 U.S. Postal Service workers held an unusual vigil Wednesday to remember both a slain San Francisco postal supervisor and the colleague police believe killed her and took his own life.

Genevieve Paez, 53, a customer service supervisor at the Postal Service annex on Napoleon Street in the Bayview district, was shot in the back of the head outside her home Nov. 28 as she was leaving for work.

Police believe a letter carrier who worked for her, 39-year-old Julius Kevin Tartt of South San Francisco, shot Paez, possibly because he was angry she had sought disciplinary action against him. That baffled co-workers at Wednesday evening's vigil, some of whom said Paez and Tartt had a long, friendly relationship.

Paez's 15-year-old daughter, the youngest of her four children, found her body on the street outside their home on Tioga Avenue in Visitacion Valley. Tartt was found dead the next day of a self-inflicted gunshot in a parking lot off Bluebell Drive in Livermore.

"We are not here tonight to talk about what happened, or the drama," said Ray Fong, executive vice president of the local chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers. "We just want to remember their lives, to reflect on their lives.

"The intent is to remember these two employees, who were both well loved by their co-workers," said Fong, who added he had known both Paez and Tartt.

"They were both wonderful people, very decent human beings,'' he said.

Fong and others at the vigil wore white armbands as they held candles in front of the Bryant Street postal annex.

Kim Truong, a shop steward at the Bayview annex, said Paez had sought to discipline Tartt in October for not finishing his deliveries on time and for sorting mail improperly. Truong said annex managers had decided to counsel Tartt rather than disciplining him, and that Tartt seemed satisfied.

"He looked fine," Truong said.

The killing surprised co-workers, he said, because Paez and Tartt "had this wonderful relationship. They were like husband and wife. They had their arguments, but the two of them got along well and they loved each other. Genevieve treated everyone like an extension of her family."

Lili Beaumont, president of the mail carriers' union local, echoed those sentiments. "People who knew Genevieve ... knew they were all like family to each other," she said.

Paez's slaying and Tartt's suicide prompted the union to ask management to evaluate workplace conditions, Fong said.

"There are going to be some discussions about how we can make things better, how to make the Postal Service a better place to work,'' Fong said.

Paez worked for the Postal Service for 20 years, and Tartt had been an employee since 1988, spending his entire career working out of the Bayview annex.

Tartt had been off work for several days and called in sick the day before the slaying, authorities said. The day Paez was killed, Tartt didn't show up and didn't call.

The next day, Tartt's relatives told police they had not seen him in more than three weeks. They added that they had found a note he addressed to his mother, in which he referred to himself in the past tense and complained about conditions at work, police said.

Sgt. Steve Mannina, a spokesman for the Police Department, said the ballistics analysis showed a match between the gun used to kill Paez and the weapon Tartt used to kill himself.

"The case is not officially closed, but we expect it to be closed shortly,'' Mannina said.

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken [at] sfchronicle.com.