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

by Labor Video Project (lvpsf [at] labornet.org)
Going Postal has now taken place in San Francisco. After being written up and harassed on the
job, postal worker and NALC 21 member killed his supervisor Genevieve Paez and then
committed suicide. The issue of violence in the post office is not new as the program of Labor On
The Job shows. It will be programmed on cable channel 29 in San Francisco on Thursday
Decmeber 21, 2006 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM.
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.



Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by VIRGINIA PIEL (gingerly [at] fidnet.com)
i'm amazed that it has been so many years since any carriers have gone postal.
these are conscientious, hardworking, very hardworking in bad weather, honest men and women who were pushed to the breaking point...at least in my day...i've been away for 5 years now.
IS THERE SOME WAY I CAN SEE THIS VIDEO?
I'M IN SULLIVAN MISSOURI.
VERY INTERESTED TO SEE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SHOW US.
THANX
You can now watch the video on google at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3044178348686965455=en

Going Postal Again: SF Postal Workers Speak Out After Murder & Suicide

56 min 54 sec - Dec 15, 2006

Labor On The Job Presents
Going Postal Again: San Francisco Postal Workers Speak Out


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.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/31/national/main1259522.shtml
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Former Postal Worker Kills 5, Herself
GOLETA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) A former employee who was once removed from a postal facility
because of strange behavior returned to the mail processing plant with a
gun and shot five workers to death, critically wounded another and
killed herself in a late-night rampage, authorities said Tuesday.

"Chances are she might have known her victims," U.S. Postal Inspector
Randy DeGasperin told a news conference the morning after the woman made
her way inside the gated facility and left a trail of bodies that ended
with her own.

The 44-year-old woman, whose identity was not released pending
notification of her relatives, had worked at the Santa Barbara
Processing and Distribution Center more than two years ago but was given
a disability retirement in 2003 for an unspecified psychological reason,
postal authorities said.

The attack Monday night was also the biggest bloodbath at a U.S. postal
installation since a massacre 20 years ago helped give rise to the term
"going postal."

The rampage — the nation's first deadly postal shooting in nearly eight
years — sent employees running from the sprawling Southern California
complex and prompted authorities to warn nearby residents to stay
indoors as they searched for the killer.

The woman had not worked at the plant for more than two years but still
managed to get inside the fenced and guarded Santa Barbara Processing
and Distribution Center, apparently by driving her car close behind
another vehicle through a gate, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim
Anderson said.

According to witnesses at the scene, the shooter was armed with a 9mm
pistol and re-loaded at least once during her rampage, CBS News' Manuel
Gallegus reports.

Authorities found two people dead outside the plant, blocks from the
University of California, Santa Barbara. Another body was just outside
the door, and a wounded woman was just inside. Three more bodies —
including that of the killer — were farther inside.

The wounded woman was hospitalized in critical condition. She had been
shot in the head.

All of the killer's victims were believed to be employees at the postal
center.

DeGasperin said the woman was placed on medical leave in 2003 for
psychological reasons. He said she had been removed from the building by
sheriff's deputies that year for acting strangely. She made no threats,
but other workers were afraid she might hurt herself, authorities said.

The sheriff said the woman's hair had been cut, and her appearance was
different from when she worked at the plant. Her electronic pass card
had been taken away when she stopped working at the facility, he said.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston and
an expert on homicides, said the death toll might be the highest ever
for any workplace shooting carried out by a woman.

"Men, more than women, tend to view their self-worth by what they do" at
work, Fox said. Men also appear more prone to use violence in seeking
revenge while "women tend to view murder as a last resort," he said.

Postal employee Charles Kronick told KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara that he
was inside the building when he heard shots. "I heard something that
sounded like a pop, and then I heard a couple seconds later, another
pop, pop, pop," Kronick said.

Kronick said his boss came running over and told him to get out of the
building, and "we all hightailed it out real quick."

Some 50 to 60 employees were seen running from the plant, and many fled
to a fire station across the street.

The dead were identified as Ze Fairchild, 37, Maleka Higgins, 28, Nicola
Grant, 42, Guadalupe Swartz, 52, and Dexter Shannon, 57.

44-year-old Charlotte Colton of Santa Barbara remains hospitalized in
critical condition, CBS News affiliate KCBS reports.

Postmaster General John E. Potter said counselors would be available to
the families and employees. "Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go
out to the families of the victims and to our employees who have
suffered through this tragic incident," he said in a statement issued in
Washington.

It was the deadliest shooting at any U.S. workplace since 2003, when
48-year-old Doug Williams gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, and
then committed suicide at a Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant in
Meridian, Miss.

It also was the bloodiest rampage at a U.S. postal installation since
1986, when a mailman killed 14 people in Edmond, Okla., and then took
his own life. Postal installations were hit with a string of deadly
shootings in the mid-1980s and early '90s.

The nation's last postal shooting was in 1998, when a 27-year-old letter
carrier fatally shot a post office clerk in Dallas after they argued in
a break room. The gunman was found not guilty of murder by reason of
insanity.

About 300 people are employed at the Goleta plant, situated about a mile
from the ocean, with the mountains as a backdrop. Goleta is about 90
miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Employees were told to report Tuesday to another processing center in
nearby Oxnard.


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