Postal union leaders doubt recent changes will be fully revived, despite USPS announcement

DeJoy announced that all changes to the postal service – including moving mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes – would be put on hold until after the Nov. 3 election, but more than a dozen union leaders Postal mailers across the country told CNN that sorting machines have already been removed or put out of service.

CNN previously reported that the documents indicated that 671 machines used to organize letters or other mail items were to “cut back” on postal facilities this year. The Postal Service said in a statement last week that it “regularly moves equipment across its network as needed to match changing volumes of mail and packages.”

Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Mich., Had been taken out of service in recent weeks, and despite the announcement of DeJoy, he said he heard from postal management that the machines were not supposed to be put back to work.

“As of today, they were told not to turn them back on,” Woods said.

He said some of the machines were being taken apart and two had been taken apart and are currently on a trailer at the facility.

“They have no intention of putting them back together,” he said.

USPS Did Not Respond did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Postal Service is bracing for an unusually high number of ballots in the mail as voters seek to avoid voting in polling centers where they could potentially contract the coronavirus. And DeJoy’s changes to the Postal Service earlier this year have come under close scrutiny. Democrats say the changes are aimed at slowing down the service, as Presidnet Donald Trump continues to repeat false claims that widespread voting by mail leads to fraud.

The USPS and DeJoy argued that the changes are intended to improve the agency’s dire financial situation. DeJoy also dismisses accusations that he made these changes at Trump’s request.

Paul Hogrogian, national president of the National Union of Postal Handlers, said he doubts machines already affected by postal service downsizing efforts will return to service, “especially as some have already been scrapped. “.

Kevin Tabarus, president of Local 300 of NPMHU, which includes New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, said he doesn’t think DeJoy’s reversal on Tuesday will undo all the challenges created by the recent cutbacks machines and other changes.

“I think it’s too late. The network is already down,” Tabarus said.

“It will be a little difficult to put a machine back in place when it has already been sent for recycling,” Ashley Cargill, a national sales officer for the APWU, told CNN.

The USPS in its Tuesday announcement made no mention of replacing or restoring the mailbox collection boxes that have been retired in recent weeks and months.

APWU National Commercial Officer Peter Coradi told CNN that changes recently enacted by the USPS preventing mail trucks “from waiting for mail delay” still appear to be in effect.

Waiting for mail to delay means that when mail trucks break down or there are delays in sorting mail, the mail is still delivered, which union officials say is essential for it to be. be delivered on time.