- A leaked email to U.S. Postal Service employees instructing them not to reassemble email sorting machines has been dismantled, CNN reported first.
- The comment, written by Kevin Couch, a director of maintenance operations, said workers “were not going to reconnect / reinstall machines that were previously disconnected without HQ Maintenance approval.”
- These instructions took precedence over orders given by plant managers, Couch added.
- Just hours earlier, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said all changes to services would pause until after Election Day.
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Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday that he will suspend all operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service until after the election, but received an internal email from CNN instructing mail workers not to sort mail machines without permission. if they are already connected.
The note was written by Kevin Couch, a director of maintenance operations.
“Please send message to your respective Maintenance Managers. They should not reconnect / reinstall machines that were previously disconnected without HQ Maintenance approval, regardless of what direction they receive from their plant manager,” Couch told CNN.
DeJoy said earlier that e-mail processing equipment will remain in place amid national unrest that such changes could delay mail delivery and throw the November presidential election into chaos. DeJoy also said that retail hours for post offices would not change, overtime hours would be approved as needed, and that no post processing facilities would be shut down.
According to CNN, it remains unknown if Couch gave postal workers additional assignments, but noted that the email was distributed to managers in the West.
Neglected union officials told CNN that there have been no attempts to repair newly removed machines in at least nine states. The news outlet reported that it could only identify two facilities – one in Dallas, Texas, and the other in Tacoma, Washington – where there have been efforts to resume normal operations with these mail sorting machines.
An increasing number of Americans are choosing to use e-mail voting instead of going to retail outlets because the U.S. is fighting the worst coronavirus outbreak on Earth, with more than 5.5 million people sick and at least 174,500 dead.
But President Donald Trump has reiterated his false assertion that voting by post results in fraud, which has driven the USPS and DeJoy into the national spotlight, with people questioning the agency’s ability to increase mail closer to November 3. to treat.
