An Iowa postal worker said on NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday that the Postal Service has removed automated mail sorting machines from her facility, forcing workers to sort mail by hand and thereby slowing delivery and creating a backlog.
Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union and a postal clerk in Waterloo, Iowa said that Postmaster General Louie DeJoy is implementing policies with the intent of slowing mail delivery.
“Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we’re seeing equipment being removed,” Karol told host Noel King. “So we are beginning to see the impact of those changes.”
Karol noted that the Postmaster General has undertaken these changes in such as way as to avoid mandatory public comment periods, which would allow citizens to object to any changes.
“We are trying to activate people all across the country and notify the public because we will – my opinion is that the PMG is trying to circumvent the rules that have been set in place to safeguard the public by making changes that don’t require public comment but have the same impact as closing offices and/or changing delivery standards,” Karol said. “And so this is a way to avoid that kind of public comment. And we’re trying to make sure that the public understands that they need to make comment.”