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David Goldstein Investigation: Bags Of Mail Piling Up At LA Post Offices

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Post office sources say over the past few weeks dozens of sorting machines have been dismantled and mailboxes taken away around the Los Angeles area.

David Goldstein says despite the suspension of changes, mail is already piling up.

This is the scene behind the postal office international service center near LAX: bags of mail from China piled high on the street.

And at the central post office near downtown L.A., mailboxes sitting in the parking lot.

Another photo leaked to CBSLA shows a mail sorting machine that would normally process 48,000 pieces of mail an hour. It's now shutdown in a facility in the L,A. area — even though Postmaster General Louis Dejoy said he's stopping some of the cutbacks at the post office.

Sources say they were removed from the streets for no apparent reason, as well as a dozen sorting machines inside.

Omar Gonzalez, the western regional coordinator for the American Postal Workers Unions, said, "What we found out is they're taking out more machines than were first reported."

Mail sorting machines have been removed statewide, including 16 in Santa Ana, 12 in L.A., and 8 in a processing center in Santa Clarita.

Postal officials had said it was done to save money. But it's led to huge delivery delays all around the area.

At the facility at LAX this morning, a picture shows five loads of mail that Goldstein was told had been sitting for a few days. When crews arrived, three were still there - marked postal from China.

Others were just sitting inside the facility.

The postmaster general has suspended some of the changes, but right now the union says there's no plans to put any of the sorting machines or mailboxes back.

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