SAN ANTONIO -- The nation's major post offices need guards and metal detectors to protect workers from widespread acts of violence by disgruntled employees, the president of the National Association of Postmasters said.
Hugh Bates, president of the 26,000-member group holding its annual convention in San Antonio, issued the call for greater security Wednesday just hours after a mailman facing dismissal opened fire in the Edmond, Okla., post office, killing 14 people and then himself.
The rampage by gunman Patrick Sherrill, 44, was the third worst mass murder in the nation's history. Sherrill had been told by his supervisors that his job was in jeopardy because of his poor performance.
Bates, Clinton, Ala., said threats and violence by employees have become common at post offices nationwide and the U.S. Postal Service should tighten up hiring practices and monitoring of new employees.
'We're having problems all over. We certainly are,' said Bates, who said two postmaster friends in Alabama had been killed in the last 10 years by angry employees.
'I think in offices as large as (Edmond), there should be security guards or metal detectors that employees must enter through to detect weapons,' he said.
Bates urged the Postal Service to conduct a thorough investigation into Sherrill's background 'to see what his history was and if there was any reason this person should not have been employed.'
Postal Service officials met two weeks ago to discuss hiring problems after a federal mediator ordered the rehiring of a part-time worker who had been dismissed for suggesting in a union newspaper that each part-time employee be issued a gun with one bullet to kill a supervisor.
Some 3,400 postmasters from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are in San Antonio for the postmasters' convention.
Vincent Sombrotto, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, expressed sympathy for the victims of Wednesday killing spree, but criticized the Postal Service's management policies in a statement issued in New York.
'While we are shocked and dismayed by what happened, and offer our prayers to those surviving victims now in the hospital, we cannot help but believe that Sherrill was pushed over the brink by irresponsible and coercive management policies by the Postal Service in the Oklahoma City region,' he said.
Beryl Jones, president of the Oklahoma City branch of the carriers' group, said Sherrill was taken into the management office a day before the rampage and told he was 'no good' and was going to be fired.
'The intimidation and the pressures exerted by the new division management here must be considered in some measure responsible for Sherrill snapping,' Jones said.
The National Association of Letter Carriers has 288,000 members nationwide.
