Many USPS workers and supporters rallied on Chicago’s South Side calling on the United States Postal Service, prosecutors, and elected officials to protect their safety. Postal workers are constantly working in fear and wondering if they will be the next victim. Postal workers have stated if their safety continues to be at risk, so will the regular delivery of mail. Being at stake isn’t beneficial, not just for them but for us too. Not getting mandatory mail that you need on time or at all is terrible. Therefore they came together and conducted a rally for protection to take action upon their safety.
Other Reasons For Rally
The U.S. Postal Service is losing a whopping 59% of its early tenure employees per year, according to a new report. Many postal employees stage protests in front of their facilities, stating there’s poor treatment of staff and a lack of priority hiring. In addition, the United States Postal Service continues to hire workers who end up quitting after a while and not being reliable. In other words, the lack of priority hiring leaves more of a workload for the dedicated workers over working the postal workers. All this leads to a toxic workplace, causes longer wait times, and otherwise reduces service for customers.
Attacks On Postal Workers
There have been many attacks against postal workers over the years. NALC says there have been over 90 attacks involving letter carriers in the past 12 months including one vehicle break-in. One of the robberies happened near 1500 North Long Avenue in North Austin. After two other robberies targeting Postal Service workers. An attack was caught by a home security camera. Two suspects got out of a white vehicle and held the letter carrier at gunpoint.
The carrier was robbed of all his belongings including mail and his master key. Robbers often target mail carriers for their universal master key. A universal master key allows mail carriers access to all the mailboxes of a particular set of residences or offices. Reports say No one got hurt during that robbery but the suspects haven’t been caught. after that, a letter carrier ended up filling in while the other letter carrier got his stuff back from the USPS.
Fatal robbery
Lastly, in a robbery that included a letter carrier, police said another postal worker was robbed and shot in the leg. it was located at the 3200 block of North Kildare Avenue in the Kilbourn Park neighborhood. “He was like speeding through the alley, and then the second time he came around was when he shot the guy, and then all our neighbors started running,” said Ali Sanchez. Witnesses have said the letter carrier didn’t resist but the suspects still shot him anyway.
Despite all these events happening and workers getting injured or robbed, there hasn’t been any word from the USPS on any changes for protection for the Postal workers. The United States Postal Service hasn’t even spoken on priority hiring to lessen the workload on reliable postal service workers. At this rate, even more postal service workers will stop putting up with it and find another job than to deliver mail in fear.
By Kevin Obregon
Sources:
ABC 7: United States Postal Service workers, supporters rally for protection after being targeted by robbers
ABC 7: Caught on camera: Mail carrier robbed in North Austin days after 2 Postal workers targeted on NW Side
9 ABC KCRG-TV9 NEWS: Union members protest over United States Postal Service work conditions
Featured and Top Image by Atomic Taco Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset featured image by Atomic Taco Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
