'Attempted Murder of Your Post Office': Outrage as Trump Crony Now Heading USPS Moves to Slow Mail

[yaesu]

"The deliberate delaying of Americans' mail delivery would be a stunning act of sabotage against our Postal Service."

Postal workers and their allies in Congress are vowing to fight back after the new head of the U.S. Postal Service—a major donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party—moved this week to impose sweeping changes to the popular government agency as it faces a financial crisis manufactured by lawmakers and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Washington Post reported late Tuesday that Postmaster General (PMG) Louis DeJoy, who took charge last month, issued memos announcing "major operational changes" to the USPS "that could slow down mail delivery, warning employees the agency would not survive unless it made 'difficult' changes to cut costs."

"Analysts say the documents present a stark reimagining of the USPS that could chase away customers—especially if the White House gets the steep package rate increases it wants—and put the already beleaguered agency in deeper financial peril as private-sector competitors embark on hiring sprees to build out their own delivery networks," the Post noted.

According to the internal USPS memos (pdf) obtained by the Post, "DeJoy told employees to leave mail behind at distribution centers if it delayed letter carriers from their routes," a change critics said could threaten access to absentee ballots at a time when vote-by-mail is more important than ever.

"If the plants run late, they will keep the mail for the next day," reads a document titled, "New PMG's expectations and plan."

"The deliberate delaying of Americans' mail delivery would be a stunning act of sabotage against our Postal Service," Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) said in a statement. "If these reports are accurate, Trump and his cronies are openly seeking to destroy the Post Office during the worst public health crisis in a century."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/15/attempted-murder-your-post-office-outrage-trump-crony-now-heading-usps-moves-slow?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=twitter

[soothsayer]

1. Shocker. Who woulda thunk it

[jimfields33]

12. The only thing I'd support is

No mail Saturday and ban junk mail. The incredible waste in junk mail is horrible for the environment in so many ways. And we all Participate in it in one way or the other.

Everywhere else should help the post office thrive.

[Fullduplexxx]

2. Slow down mail in voting is what is meant

[LiberalLovinLug]

25. Setting up to commit massive voter mail sabotage

I was wondering how they would take advantage of the fact that, in spite of Trump's campaign against mail in voting, voting by mail will inevitably be on the rise in a big way in November.

What they should be doing, what any Democracy should be doing in this time, is bolstering the Post Office with more help, more workers. Even now, more people are ordering by mail. My brother works as a postal delivery person, and he tells me how packages and boxes have increased 10x this year. Not just from Amazon.

No doubt an unprecedented amount of mail in votes will be made. They are looking for a way to intercept them and destroy as many as they can from Democratic heavy districts.

[SheltieLover]

3. Here in Memphis region

It is the absolute norm for all mail to sit in the post office for 5-7 days before being delivered.

People complained. They "investigated" 🙄 & found nothing wrong.

Packages frequently arrive broken, mangled, opened with parts missing.

Typical of this shithole region.

[yaesu]

9. As a teen back in the 70's I used to get coins in the mail from a Chicago area company

Many times the package would be cut & the coins missing, never did figure out which office along the line was messing with it. Had to quit ordering from them.

[SheltieLover]

10. Sorry to hear!

If it went through Memphis, chances are good the vandalism occurred here. To many here, vandalism is "having fun." 🤬

[Backseat Driver]

21. Year's ago, at a time of high unemployment during the '90s, some one was stealing

an OOT newspaper we ordered by subscription for the classified job ads and which arrived folded in a banded brown paper wrap w/address label. After complaining to our Federal congressman when the Postmaster had no ideas, it miraculous started to show up. LOL, I told you it was long ago!

[jimfields33]

13. What? Memphis is a very blue region. I'd never call it a shithole.

[Whiskeytide]

4. They want to kill the USPS because private ...

... delivery companies can’t compete with it. Slowing vote by mail is just a bonus.

[aggiesal]

33. They want to kill the USPS because it has the largest union in the country ...

So they want to kill the United Postal Carrier Union.

Issa (or as I call him AssI), implemented a poison pill in a USPS bill that required the USPS to pay for their pension plan to cover up to 75 years. What company does that?

The money issues that they are experiencing this year is from that poison pill USPS law.

[Whiskeytide]

35. All true. But the lobbyist pushing against ...

... the USPS are working for FedEx, etc... That’s where the $comes from.

[kysrsoze]

5. I used to work closely with USPS. This is a stupid idea. They have no room to slow the mail

Their whole system works on a continuous flow of mail, into and out of distribution centers, into the airlines' cargo systems, etc. They do not have the ability to hang onto mail if they run late. Doing so as the incoming mail arrives, for just a couple of days, will choke the system. The mail has to go, which is why Parcel Post will often arrive at the same time or a day later than Priority Mail, and I suspect why the cost difference between the two is now so minimal - one is guaranteed on-time and the other is not.

[BComplex]

6. Someone needs to get a court order to stop this, and start a class action lawsuit

against trump's buddy.

This is an outrage. And fixing the mess the republicans started with the post office to break it (and make sure they could "privatize" yet another government function so their buddies can WAY overcharge the government) is just one more thing Biden needs to fix once and for all.

[Nevilledog]

7. Hmmm....ballots will be late and uncounted.

Next week need "discrete packaging" so you can't tell it's a ballot and it won't be shuffled out.

This is deliberate.

[SheltieLover]

11. I believe you are correct!

Grappling now with primary in Aug by mail. Not sure what to do. 😰

I suppose I could send it Priority with signature required.

[jimfields33]

14. Ballots should be dropped off at the elections office

I’m dropping off three on Friday. our postage is even free but I’m still dropping them off. Only way to ensure they are counted. We have a primary in August.

[Nevilledog]

16. That's what I'm going to do.

[Backseat Driver]

20. One year I requested an absentee ballot

but opted to go to the polls instead. Imagine my surprise to get a "provisional" ballot at the general. My address had not changed for a good 10 years! They claimed I failed to return a notification regarding my polling place which had not changed location; it may have changed its name. If I did receive that notice in the mail, I certainly would have returned the request but I can't recall even receiving it.

I hate apartment mail kiosks and being on an "alternative" mail route which means we have no regularly assigned carrier that may be unfamiliar with the location of each family's personal mail boxes. Every week, we seem to get some else's mail, previous resident's mail, or deceased relative's mail (after 10 years, it gets ridiculous). I've even had small packages delivered to the office but checked off as in the box when the truth was it was not delivered at all but still on the truck for the following day's delivery.

There is no institutional system that works fluently in America. I expect human error on occasion but, seriously...

[aggiesal]

34. Vote by mail, but drop the envelop at any polling station ...

on election day. You just drop it in the ballot box. They can't stop you.

That way you can take your time voting, and on election day, you don't have to wait in any line, or even go to the correct precinct, just drop the mail ballot into the ballot box.

The Registrar of Voters will sort out the mail in ballots at the county headquarters where all the ballots are counted.

[cayugafalls]

8. Part of their burn it all down strategy.

Pillage and burn.

F'ing criminals.

[shockey80]

15. Take my word for it, this has been going on for years.

I worked at the post office many years ago. It was fucking insane what they did to the workers and continue to do to the workers.

There are people in this country who want to privatize the post office so they can get the money.

[blitzen]

17. Here's my own anecdotal evidence:

This is a package I ordered from amazon. The Post Office says they tried to deliver it on Sunday (?) but that they could not deliver because my driveway was not accessible. Total bullshit, my driveway and front door are totally open to the street. Since then it looks like they've been shuttling it on and off a mail carrier's truck but not delivering it to my house.

Textbook fascist strategy of destroying public institutions.


Shipped with USPS

Wednesday, July 15
6:35 AM

Package arrived at a carrier facility
Baton Rouge, LA US
3:58 AM

Package arrived at a carrier facility
Baton Rouge La Processing Center, US

Monday, July 13
8:50 AM

Package has left the carrier facility
Baton Rouge, LA US
7:57 AM

Package arrived at a carrier facility
Baton Rouge, LA US

Sunday, July 12
6:33 PM

Delivery attempted - Front door / Driveway was not accessible
Baton Rouge, LA US
11:23 AM

[Backseat Driver]

18. I recently learned something astonishing...

We made a small error in a local tax filing in a previous year. My informed delivery said there was a letter from a department of said taxing firm but it never showed up, so off to the P.O. to investigate the missing mail. They could not find it, but three weeks later, long after the deadline set in the text of the letter, it shows up, not even a regular postmark nor digitally applied scan date - all pristinely sealed and without a mark on it. Seems said agency can request its mail be returned to them whether franked or stamped, and held indefinitely, even before it's been delivered. Informed Delivery is a rather new service to mail customers, so notifications from the agency could have gone missing before the scanning service was available and for which one must sign up! Neither did the agency try to call or leave a message on the landline phone for that would have required a good deal of likely illegal sleuthing on their part. Rather than waiting for the missing mail's appearance, we called the agency about said scanned but not delivered piece of mail. Were it not for that call, we might have missed a deadline regarding legal action and/or setting up the repayment date/schedule...and we'd never find out about that notification thereby exponentially increasing the interest due on the initial error.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. The USPS is written into the Constitution

Why do these assholes hate America?

[Lonestarblue]

23. Because they're trying to turn the country into an oligarchy serving only the billionaires.

They’re damned close now. Trump learned from the Russian oligarchs and Putin.

[bronxiteforever]

22. Kick and recommend for visibility

[Midnight Writer]

24. I retired from the USPS twenty years ago, and our policy then was every piece, every day.

After the carriers left for their routes, our clerks would scan the building for mail left behind (usually missorts) and then a designated carrier would take that mail to the streets to make sure every piece of mail was delivered.

[abakan]

26. I think what they are attempting to do...

Is to sabotage the mail in vote. This is just another cynical approach to limit the vote and keep Trump in office.

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Steep package rate increases will whack ecommerce

Except for this year they've made rate increases each year. Last one was about 11% on Priority Mail.

[dalton99a]

28. "You don't need that prescription anytime soon, do ya?"

[mnhtnbb]

29. This is already being done in Raleigh.

I've had two packages in the last week with trackers on them so I've seen it first hand.

One was identified as delivered last week. Nothing in my mailbox. I live in a high rise apartment building and I figured it was mistakenly put in someone else's box.

I enlisted help of management here to intercept the postal carrier the next day to look in other boxes. I also went through trying to contact the post office delivery supervisor. That entailed about a dozen phone calls--mostly listening to unanswered phone ringing--only to hear the next day that it got too late the previous day to complete delivery, so the package that was tracked as delivered, was , in fact, not.

Yesterday tracking on a second package showed it was out for delivery by 8 pm. It also showed it came from the Greensboro regional postal facility to Raleigh, and then was sent back to Greensboro! Then on to Raleigh again.





Today, that tracking has mysteriously disappeared and that package is supposed to be out for delivery again today before 5 pm(now changed from 7 pm to 8 pm). We'll see if it arrives.

I do believe that the screwing with the USPS has already begun.

[yaesu]

30. I just shipped out 3 packages via priority, hoping they get to the people without any problems

don't mind delays & already knew they were strained do to covid. Now they are being attacked from the fascists, I hope the House Dems do everything in their power even if they need to get nasty to stop the fascists in their tracks.

[mnhtnbb]

31. If I were you, I'd stop using the PO and switch to UPS for package delivery.

[sarcasmo]

32. Certified mail your absentee ballot so it can Not be lost/destroyed, is this possible?