Some postal union leaders expressed skepticism that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Tuesday announcement that mail-processing equipment will remain in place would fully restore the capacity of the Postal Service.
DeJoy announced that all changes being made to the USPS — including moving mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes — would be suspended until after the Nov. 3 election, but more than a dozen postal union leaders across the country have told CNN that sorting machines have already been removed or taken out of service.
CNN previously reported that documents indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail were slated for “reduction” in postal facilities this year. The Postal Service said in a statement last week that it “routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes.”
Miriam Bell, general president of a local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union in North Carolina, said seven sorting machines at a Charlotte postal facility have been either separated out, dismantled or entirely removed in recent weeks.
Asked if she expects them to return, Bell said, “We truthfully do not know,” adding, “it is highly unlikely they will be put back in place.”
Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan, had been removed from service in recent weeks, and despite DeJoy’s announcement, he said he has heard from postal management that the machines are not supposed to be put back to work.
“As of today, they were told not to power them back up,” Woods said.
Read more here.