The issue of mail carriers ignoring the red outgoing-mail flag on residential mailboxes has been the topic of — or referred to in — three letters to the editor published since Jan. 31 — two letters critical of the Butler Post Office and one letter praising it.

The letter praising the post office said, "I visit the Butler Post Office two to three times a week and have done so for the past 11 years . . . (and) have been completely satisfied with postal employees of the Butler office and their knowledge, courtesy and timely handling of my merchandise."

But the two other letters were from people who were unhappy and frustrated over their carriers' refusal to pick up their outgoing mail when there has been no mail to be delivered to their addresses.

Said the first letter writer:

"I went to the Butler Post Office and stated my problem. I was directed to a supervisor who told me that if I don't have any incoming mail, they will not pick up a letter in my box that is outgoing, even though my neighbor, whose box is next to mine, received his mail.

"I asked her if this made any sense to her, and she told me it made plenty of sense. . . ."

Meanwhile, the second letter criticizing the post office said, "My question is: Why are the red flags on the mailboxes if the mail carriers are not going to pay attention to them?"

That's a good question at a time when credit card companies show no mercy to a customer whose payment doesn't arrive on time, even if that is because the payment has been ignored by a mail carrier for a couple of days.

But Irene Eldridge, who became Butler's postmaster on Jan. 22, says ignoring the flag when there is no mail being delivered to an address is not an isolated, local policy. She said it is a national policy and that it is not a new policy. She said the practice has been in effect for at least 25 or 30 years — maybe even as far back as 1972.

According to Eldridge, whether or not mail is picked up when the red flag is displayed is an issue governed by carriers' national labor agreements. She said the labor agreement covering city routes says that a carrier need not pick up outgoing mail when there is no mail being delivered. However, she said, the rule for rural carriers is different. Seeing a red flag, the rural carrier must pick up outgoing mail, whether or not mail is being delivered.

She said managers at post offices cannot force carriers to deviate from the labor agreements, although she indicated that at times, in response to calls from customers, managers have asked carriers to, as a courtesy, pick up mail that initially wasn't picked up.

Labor agreements or not, the policy doesn't enhance the image of the U.S. Postal Service. It's reasonable for customers to expect that their mail will not be deliberately ignored.

It's not rare for union contracts to contain provisions that stifle productivity. Some provisions even are within the parameters of being nonsensical, and the Postal Service's city route mail pickup rule is a good candidate for that category.

Mail being sent should not be delayed unnecessarily, most certainly not when a mailbox flag is properly displayed to alert a carrier to the presence of that outgoing mail.

At the same time, mail customers can sympathize with the Postal Serv-ice's efforts to streamline operations and, according to Eldridge, that is going on at the Butler Post Office. She said that, based on mail volume, a carrier from a route with a low volume is sometimes mobilized to help on another, large-volume route.

Such actions aren't unusual in today's business world, where many employees are required to carry a bigger workload stemming from employee cutbacks.

This also is a time when, with computers allowing people to depend less on the post office, postal workers should be striving to enhance the Postal Service's image — by way of good service — rather than undermine it.

Failure to pick up outgoing mail works against the post office's long-term best interests. Carriers nationwide should ponder that the next time they negotiate a labor contract.

If the Postal Service eventually decides to cut back on delivery days, the importance of picking up all outgoing mail will become even more of an issue.

The Postal Service needs to rethink this area of commitment to its customers.

The two writers critical of the post office, whose letters to the editor appeared in the letters column over the past couple of weeks, should not be criticized. They have done the post office a service by calling attention to an issue that should have been addressed a long time ago.