New York postal workers uneasy working where anthrax was found

Associated Press WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Executives of a postal union met Friday to decide how to deal with anthrax contamination at a huge mail processing plant, but one leader did not wait and urged workers to stay home.

"We are telling the workers they are not supposed to go in that building," said William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, as he stood outside the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center. "They are supposed to close that building down."

The union's executive committee gathered to form a strategy that could include court action, union attorney Louie Nikolaidis said.

The U.S. Postal Service has insisted there's no need to close the plant, and spokesman Dan Quinn said Friday that absenteeism was no higher than the normal 6 percent to 7 percent. But one worker coming off a midnight-to 8:30 a.m. shift said several of his colleagues were off the job.

"There's a lot missing from all floors," said Keith Kirk, a machine clerk. And "the crew that just came in looks like a skeleton crew," he said.

The Postal Service announced Thursday that the bacteria were detected on four machines in the nine-story center on Manhattan's West Side. They may have been contaminated by the anthrax-laced letters that were sent to NBC and the New York Post.

Earlier tests had found that the building was safe to work in and the building would not be closed, spokeswoman Pat McGovern said Thursday.

Instead, the machines were cordoned off and would be cleaned after testing is completed, she said.

Kirk, who carried a breathing mask, said the machines were surrounded with bright-orange tape Friday but had not yet been cleaned, which was a concern to many workers on the third floor. He said he was trying not to think about anthrax.

"I try not to let it bother me," he said. "I just remember I'm coming here for the overtime."

Others from the building's more than 5,000 workers objected strongly.

"I think management finds it cheaper to possibly pay sick benefits or death benefits rather than to close the building and decontaminate it," said Bill Bachmann, 51, an electronic technician.

Earlier in the week, the Postal Service made the antibiotic Cipro available to 7,000 workers at Morgan and five other postal facilities in New York. No postal employees have tested positive for anthrax in New York, but two have died of the inhaled form of the disease in Washington.

Like many other employees at the facility, Bachmann said he would take Cipro. But he and other workers want the building decontaminated as well.

"People are scared," he said.

The Postal Service said about 1,100 workers had already received Cipro by midday Thursday.

Quinn said the Morgan center handles all incoming and outgoing mail for Manhattan and the Bronx, about 20 million pieces of mail a day.

Tony Musso, a Postal Service spokesman, said the facility is not used by the public, and "the public need not be concerned about mail they receive."

Four people -- one linked to NBC, the Post, CBS and ABC each -- have confirmed cases of cutaneous anthrax, which is far less dangerous than the inhaled form that has been found in cases elsewhere.

City health officials announced Thursday that a second case at NBC, stemming from the same letter that is believed to have infected an assistant to news anchor Tom Brokaw, has been reclassified from possible skin anthrax to "suspicious or probable."

The victim's name was not made public but NBC said she was a desk assistant who handled the letter, which said, among other things, "Take penicillin now" and "Death to America."

"The woman is fine," said spokeswoman Kassie Canter.

The New York Times announced that a letter from Scotland that was opened in its mailroom on Tuesday and contained a powder tested negative for anthrax. The eighth-floor mailroom remained closed, however, and mailroom employees were still being tested, said spokeswoman Catherine Mathis.