The United States Postal Service is preparing for a myriad of changes, including reducing overtime pay for workers and the possibility of delays in delivering mailings to customers due to multimillion-dollar revenue losses during the coronavirus pandemic. .
Funding for the postal service is likely to run out in late September if Congress does not intervene, and the agency’s new head, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, is pushing for employees to be “different-minded” and responsive. to frugality. changes
POSTAL SERVICE CORRECTED IN CASH ‘IN DANGER’ WITHOUT CONVENTION OF THE CONGRESS: WATCHDOG
Late trips will no longer be authorized. If postal distribution centers are late, “they will save the mail for the next day,” postal service leaders say in a document obtained by The Associated Press.
“One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that, temporarily, we can see mail left behind or mail on the floor of the work room or on the docks,” another document said.
A mail carrier from the United States Postal Service (USPS) walks through heavy rain as Tropical Storm Fay sweeps across the heavily populated Northeast United States in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, July 10 2020. REUTERS / Mike Segar
DeJoy’s changes to the postal service come a month after Trump’s donor took office.
In a note first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, titled “PMG Plan and Expectations,” the agency said the changes are aimed at “making the USPS fundamentally solvent, which we are not at the moment.”
The postal service reported a loss of $ 4.5 billion for the quarter that ended in March before the strong economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but things only worsened as the virus increased across the country.
POSTAL SERVICE CORRECTED IN CASH ‘IN DANGER’ WITHOUT CONVENTION OF THE CONGRESS: WATCHDOG
The volume of first-class one-piece mail fell from 15 to 20 percent week-to-week in April and May, the agency’s leaders told Congress in a bid to secure more government funds. Losses will increase by more than $ 22 billion in the next 18 months, they said.
Republicans in Congress have been slow to react to postal service bailouts. Despite approving a $ 10 billion line of credit for the agency, impending restrictions from the Trump administration have made the agency tired of taking advantage of it. Democrats passed another bill to dispense $ 25 billion for mail services, but Republicans in the Senate have yet to pass it.
An increase in parcel deliveries was a respite from the economic hardships the postal service has experienced, but an increase in the costs of personal protective equipment, deep cleaning of facilities, and temporary workers to replace sick postal workers They offset the momentum, Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told the Associated Press.
United States Post Office (USPS) mail truck parked in Miami, Florida
(iStock)
Up to 12,000 postal workers have contracted COVID-19 and at least 64 workers have died from the virus.
Skeptics of congressional posts to help the agency say it is a ploy to avoid voting by mail in November, a hot topic for President Trump, who deeply opposes the option, pointing to unverified claims of electoral fraud. .
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Representative Bill Pascrell, DN.J., said DeJoy’s new proposal to stop mail deliveries would be an “impressive act of sabotage against our postal service.”
“Trump and his cronies openly seek to destroy the post office during the worst public health crisis in a century,” said Pascrell.
As states increasingly depend on voting by mail to continue elections during the pandemic, the destabilization of the postal service not only threatens the economy and the employment of 600,000 workers, but is also “a direct attack on American democracy” Pascrell said.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
