The president of the country’s largest postal union warned Friday that charge cuts may exacerbate mail delays at a time when states are preparing for greater use of mail and mail ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There are states that previously did not allow postal voting and will now have to put it into effect because of this pandemic moment,” Mark Dimondstein, president of the United States Postal Workers Union (APWU), told USA Today. “The back job is now the key to ensuring that tens of millions of other people can participate in the survey.”
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is experiencing mail delays across the country after a replacement in procedures implemented this month, Dimondstein said. A shared memorandum with all workers alerted them to adjustments that included back trips and other trips that were “no longer legal or accepted.”
“One of the facets of those adjustments that can be difficult for workers is that, temporarily, we can see the mail left on the floor of the workshop or on the Array dock … which is typical,” says the memo, which APWU shared with USA Today. Training
Marti Johnson, a spokeswoman for the postal service, said in an email that the formula is a “financially unsustainable position” and that her leadership “focuses vigorously” on efficiency.
“Of course, we recognize that the effects of transitority can occur when we redouble our efforts to comply with existing operational plans, however, those effects will be monitored and transitory as the fundamental reasons for any challenge will be addressed if it is mandatory and will be corrected if required.” Johnson said.
Dimonstein said the post office minister had “instituted policies over the past two weeks that reduced the number of hours of workers’ work, reduced the hours of many retail operations, and replaced transportation schedules so that if a truck is not full, it doesn’t go well.”
Dimondstein said policy adjustments are to blame for unprecedented delays and predicts that this will erode public confidence in the USPS if not monitored.
“If we can’t serve other people at a time when they need things faster, it undermines other people’s confidence in the postal service, which sometimes have a big influence,” Dimondstein said. “And if other people no longer follow us, the door to privatization opens.”
Dimondstein said that, under general circumstances, postal voting is an airtight system, despite President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on him.
“The postal vote is already proving to be a catastrophic disaster,” Trump wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Even the check spaces are far away. Democrats communicate about foreign influence in voting, but they know that mail voting is an easy way for foreign countries to enter the race. Even beyond that, there is no exact count!”
Ahead of the November 3 election, Trump speculated about the foreign interference postal vote in recent months, which voting experts and election officials have denounced as false.
“We’ve been voting in the mail for generations,” Dimondstein said. “This concept that voting by mail is fraudulent is fraud. It is very protected, reliable and private. We’re involved in that it’s going to slow down mail, which affects everything we do.”
Johnson said that “the postal service remains committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process” with respect to postal voting.
“To be transparent, Array … and despite all the claims to the contrary, we are not slowing down mail or any other mail,” Johnson said. “Instead, we continue to use a physically powerful and proven procedure to ensure that all mail is treated in accordance with our standards.
The procedural replenishment that motivates the delays took over Louis DeJoy, one of President Donald Trump’s main donors, who took office as CEO and executive leader of the posts this month.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that adjustments implemented through DeJoy “contribute to the growing belief that mail delays are the result of a political effort to undermine postal voting” among union and postal workers, an effort that the USPS has denied.
“The concept of the postal minister making decisions about the postal service under the president’s leadership is completely misplaced,” Johnson said.