This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
It’s NOT what they say or write to Congress but it is what they do that matters!
“People are scared because management has stopped communicating,”
Is there pressure from the higher ups/WH or is this SOP USPS management issue?
It is unconscionable to the postal workers…
And the risk of Covid spread is very wide!
I am a retired USPS clerk.
My main reason for retiring was Postal Management.
Most, not all, seemed to think that we the employees and the public were here to kiss their asses.
Some in management in my area were removed, fired, from one position to another to be moved again whose only talent was to write someone up.
At one time you could count on 90% of our Post Office employees to do more then was expected but it wasn’t the way bungling wanted things done, or understood, so they destroyed the work ethic and moral.
My understanding is they get bonuses.I did not then and do not now believe in bonuses for Government employees.
Postal management sucks, mainly.
You’d think they’d at least send them a letter informing them.
Remember anthrax and the Post Office that wasn’t closed?
Why am I not surprised at all?
Amazon is doing the same thing not notifying its warehouse workers: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/26/21194739/amazon-warehouse-workers-coronavirus-covid-19-outraged-informed
I actually have to go to the local PO to mail something so I’ll see what measures they’re taking. Of course I’ll be wearing a mask. Ironically it’s to mail in a passport renewal that who knows when I’ll get to use again.
Btw, I’m wondering how this ends. From my layperson understanding, there are three “good” scenarios.
One, an effective and safe vaccine is released, for free or very low cost, everyone who hasn’t gotten the virus already and been naturally inoculated takes it, and we can finally resume normal life.
Two, social distancing works, everyone who’s caught the virus either dies (hopefully not) or recovers and is thus presumably inoculated, and thus can no longer infect those who haven’t caught it, universal testing lets us know who is in which group, and life can resume.
Or three, since #2 is unlikely to happen voluntarily, governments impose severe and effective mandatory distancing, and the outcome in #2 is achieved.
This of course assumes that there is natural inoculation and that one form of total separation or another can be imposed. And that’s doubtful. Even if there is natural inoculation, there will likely always be enough contagion that no one who hasn’t caught it is safe, unless they practice severe isolation.
Thus, until a vaccine is released (or very effective cures are found), life will not be normal. And since we probably can’t sustain long-term shutdown, people are going to continue to be infected, get sick and die.
Perhaps the most effective real-world solution until a vaccine is found is universal testing, separating out those most likely to die from the virus and forcing them into long-term isolation, developing an interim “cure”, and allowing everyone else to resume normal life, but with precautions, e.g. masks, physical distancing, frequent sanitizing and hand-washing, not sharing equipment, etc.
No worries, FEMA and Dr. Jenious Von Stable are way ahead on fixing things…
Why does McCain defend a guy who’s insults against her dad drive her to tears? I just don’t understand some folks seeming normal reaction to some things and then completely opposite reaction to some thing that should still be crazy to them.
Making postal employees work without appropriate PPE isn’t much different from making them handle a letter filled with anthrax.
The military banned installation commanders from reporting any cases of the virus. I suspect how they’re treating postal workers is part of the same trumpian philosophy.
Prisons will be pressure points too.
Publix doesn’t tell its customers when one of their grocery workers test positive either. The fact that we couldn’t just run out and get tested if we did know is immaterial. We have a right to know if we’ve possibly been exposed.
I am acquainted with 2 postal workers (retired) They both say that postal management is the worst they’ve ever encountered. I’m cleaning up their language.
How’d it go? Coincidentally, I also had to go to the post office today.
At mine: steady stream of customers. About 3-6 in the building at any one time. Almost all customers were masked, employees were not and I don’t think they had gloves either. Six foot spacing was marked in the floor and was adhered to. Plexiglass shields hung down at the front of the counter between customer and clerk
County official gets stonewalled by Army and state prison system.
The local PO I went to is pretty small, just 2-3 windows. Like most NYC POs it has plexiglass completely separating customers from workers, with a small slot for small envelopes, cash, change and receipts, and 2 vertically sliding small doors for larger packages. It’s been like this here for as long as I can remember, decades, so it protects the workers from the virus even though it was obviously intended to protect them from armed robbers. Yeah, the stories were true about NYC, but long ago.
Anyway, I forgot to take my mask as this was actually a mid-way stop on a short exercise run, and I breath too hard when I run to be able to use a mask. Lucky for me there was no one in the PO when I entered, although a couple of people came in shortly after. It was a quick transaction, taking just a couple of minutes, and I quickly left, making sure to face away from the other customers and use my fist to push open the door. Then I was back on my way.
This part of Queens is kind of a ghost town, with few people or cars. Almost all the stores are closed, except for a couple of small grocery stores, a pizzeria, Domino’s and a bagel shop. Most of the restaurants are closed, as there’s not enough takeout traffic to make it worth their while. Oh, and a liquor store, of course. It’s surreal. The local park gets a lot of visitors though, I’m guessing people suffering from cabin fever and needing to get out. There are always several police cruisers at the corners, I assume to make sure there aren’t large social gatherings. About half the people wear masks, and the ones who don’t tend to be young and affluent-looking (it literally abuts the neighborhood that Trump grew up in, albeit a different part of it).
Every time I hear or see an ambulance, I assume it’s a Covid patient. Barely see or hear planes anymore. Interestingly, I also rarely see mounted cops here, even though the local mounted unit is located right in the park. You’d think they would be well-suited to spot and deal with groups of maskless idiots hanging out. Perhaps horses can catch the virus and they don’t want to risk it, or horses get spooked by crowds? Anyway, a typical day in the neighborhood.
Cowards lie. Simple as that. The COs of these bases are all cowards. Blindly following orders is how we get fascism. If they’re not at least leaking reports, they’re not fit to lead their troops. They learned the wrong lesson from that naval commander who was sacked.