PILES OF MAIL

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32252, 21 March 1970, Page 11

PILES OF MAIL

New York Strike

(N.Z P A -Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, March 20.

Troops may be called out to move mountains of mail piling up in New York because of the country’s first postal strike. The strike for higher pay scales began early on Wednesday morning and has spread to surrounding communities in Long Island, northern New Jersey and counties north of New York City.

Masses of mail are accumulating throughout the United States at post offices barred from sending it to New York—whose Manhattan Central Post Office in a normal day alone handles 35 million pieces of mail. Foreign mail coming to New York is being diverted to other United States ports. Most hard hit are businesses which rely on a steady flow of cheques from customers. A White House spokesman, Mr Ronald Ziegler, said the problem was that the Post Office was archaic. The White House hoped to bring the workers back so that the Administration and postal unions could work together to pass a Post Office Reform Bill.