Post union leaders doubt recent changes will be fully restored, despite USPS announcement

DeJoy announced that all changes made to the Postal Service – including relocated mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes – would be delayed until after the November 3 election, but more than a dozen postal union leaders in total country have told CNN that sorting machines have already been removed or taken out of service.

CNN previously reported that documents indicating 671 machines used to organize letters or other mail items were intended this year for “reduction” in mail facilities. The Postal Service said last week in a statement that it “routinely moves equipment around its network as needed to keep up with changing mail and parcel volumes.”

Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said dozens of machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan, had been removed from service in recent weeks, and despite DeJoy’s announcement, he said he had lost mail. heard that the machines are not set to return to work.

“As of today, they were told they did not want to make a backup,” Woods said.

He said some machines were in the process of being dismantled, and two have fallen apart and are currently on a trailer at the facility.

“They have no plans to put them back together,” he said.

USPS did not respond to a request for comment.

The Postal Service handles an unusually large number of post-in ballots, as voters look to prevent ballots from appearing at polls where they could potentially carry the coronavirus. And changes DeJoy made to the Postal Service earlier this year have come under control. Democrats claim the changes are meant to carry the service because President Donald Trump continues to repeat false accusations that widespread postal voting will lead to fraud.

The USPS and DeJoy have maintained that the changes are intended to improve the agency’s difficult financial situation. DeJoy also denies allegations that he made these changes following Trump.

Paul Hogrogian, national president for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, said he doubted machines already affected by the postal service’s reduction efforts would return to service, “especially since some have already been scrapped.”

Kevin Tabarus, president of NPMHU Local 300, which includes New York City and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, said he does not think the reversal of DeJoy Tuesday will undo all the challenges posed by recent machine removals and other changes.

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

“It will be a bit difficult to put a machine back in when it has already been shipped for recycling,” Ashley Cargill, an APWU national business agent, told CNN.

The USPS said in its announcement Tuesday nothing about replacing or repairing mailboxes that have been removed in recent weeks and months.

APWU national business agent Peter Coradi told CNN newly introduced USPS changes that prevent mail trucks from “waiting for late mail” still appear to be in effect.

Waiting for late mail means that if mail trucks break down or there are delays in sorting mail, the mail will still be delivered, something union officials say is essential that it is delivered on time.