In meeting with Smith, postal employees pledge to ‘go the extra mile’ to ensure mail-in ballots count

August 18, 2020 by

Tina Smith meets with postal employees outside the Eagan distribution center.

As U.S. Sen. Tina Smith met with postal workers, letter carriers and reporters outside the sprawling mail distribution center in Eagan today, a pickup truck exiting the facility slowed to a stop near the crowd. The driver lowered her window and barked out a brief message for Smith before speeding away.

“Thank you, senator!” she yelled. “Give him hell.”

That’s exactly the treatment new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has received from Smith and other Minnesota DFLers over the last month, as structural changes at the USPS have slowed down mail delivery in many parts of the country and, just 11 weeks from Election Day, cast doubt on the agency’s ability to accommodate a vote-by-mail surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been hearing from many, many of my constituents about mail that is late, that is unreliable,” Smith said after an inspection of changes at the Eagan facility. “And that’s not the fault of the people who work so hard inside that building. That is the fault of the chaotic approach and rapid-fire change we’ve been seeing at the federal level.”

In response to criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, DeJoy issued a statement shortly before Smith’s scheduled tour, announcing that the Postal Service would put further restructuring plans on hold through Election Day.

“That doesn’t give me any great confidence,” Smith said, adding that she worries DeJoy shares President Donald Trump’s “politicized” view of the Postal Service. “It makes me wonder what their true intentions are.”

The USPS Board of Governors, stacked with six Trump appointees, tapped DeJoy to serve as postmaster general May 6, and he took office in June.

For DeJoy, who has contributed millions to Republican candidates and over $1.2 million to the Trump Victory Fund, it was his first job with the public Postal Service after a 35-year career in the private shipping industry. He and his wife recently held investments of between $30 and $75 million in companies that compete directly with USPS – a blatant, but not illegal conflict of interest.

Union leaders warned DeJoy’s appointment was like putting a fox in charge of the hen house, and he has done little in the last two months to prove otherwise.

In July, DeJoy announced processing facilities like the one in Eagan would hold onto mail not sorted in time to meet strict distribution schedules, a move he described as necessary to curb overtime pay. Previously, drivers and postal workers would work in tandem to move as much of the day’s mail off the shop floor before closing the truck gate, ensuring timely, dependable delivery.

Todd Elkerton, president of the APWU’s St. Paul branch, speaks during a press conference outside the Eagan facility.

“We were taught if that mail doesn’t go out the next day, we were going to get in trouble,” said Todd Elkerton, president of the American Postal Workers Union in St. Paul. “Now we’re seeing it happen. It’s being directed from above. And we’re really having a hard time dealing with it.”

Meanwhile, the Postal Service has removed 671 sorting machines from stations across the country, leading to further delays. And photos of mailboxes ripped off the streets in several communities spread widely on social media last week, prompting more public outrage.

The Eagan facility has lost seven sorting machines since the restructuring began, Elkerton said. It’s not the first time he has seen machines “tarped” – or taken out of service – during periods of low mail flow, but it is more than Elkerton has ever seen at once.

So far, postal workers in Eagan have been able to keep disruptions in mail service to a minimum. But the facility was understaffed before the restructuring, and the sorting machines Eagan lost were capable of processing nearly 5 million pieces of mail per day. Elkerton and Joe Malkush, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers in St. Paul, said that doesn’t bode well for the inevitable increase in mail volume.

Smith and other federal lawmakers from Minnesota have demanded DeJoy reverse the changes, alarmed by reports from constituents whose medications have been slow to arrive by mail.

Rep. Angie Craig, a DFLer who represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, sent a letter to DeJoy and Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Jr., earlier this month, noting that the VA fills nearly 80% of veterans’ prescriptions by mail.

Joe Malkush, president of the St. Paul letter carriers union, say if his members can deliver the mail on time for the holidays, “we can do it during the election.”

“I will not stand by and watch these recent attempts to politicize, dismantle and delay postal services, which put the lives of more than 330,000 veterans every day at unnecessary risk,” Craig said. “The politicization of the Postal Service is a grave disservice to the hardworking employees of the Postal Service and puts American veterans in harm’s way.”

In May, Craig and 4th District Rep. Betty McCollum voted with other House Democrats to keep the agency afloat during the pandemic with $25 billion in emergency funding, part of the HEROES Act. Trump and Senate Republicans have balked at the amount.

The president has acknowledged the emergency funding would improve the agency’s ability to handle mail-in voting, which he opposes. “They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business.

Further stoking election-related fears, the Postal Service sent letters to 46 states warning that mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted. But local postal employees said they remain confident every ballot cast through the mail here will be delivered to election officials on time – “even if we have to go the extra mile,” Elkerton said.

Delivering the mail, Smith quipped to reporters, is embedded in postal employees’ DNA.

“We do it during Christmas,” Malkush added. “We can do it during the election.”

Filed Under: Community, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Workers put Trump on notice: ‘The U.S. mail is not for sale!’

October 8, 2018 by

Craig Barrett, who said he has delivered mail for “16 winters” in St. Paul, rallies with fellow Postal Service employees on a national day of action.

Postal Service employees are bringing their unions together to push back against President Trump’s plans to privatize the federal agency.

And their solidarity is paying off.

Letter carriers, postal workers, mail handlers and other USPS employees in Minneapolis — and in communities across the country — rallied today with supporters, putting Trump and federal lawmakers on notice that the U.S. mail should not be for sale.

“As long as we can fight, we’re going to keep fighting to keep our Postal Service going strong,” said Harold Harvey, a member of St. Paul-based Branch 28 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, as he walked an informational picket line outside Minneapolis’ downtown post office.

Todd Elkerton, president of the American Postal Workers Union’s St. Paul chapter, noted the Postal Service is the only federal agency mentioned in the Constitution. “We believe the threat is real,” Elkerton said. “This will be the first time in U.S. history the president has come forward with a proposal to privatize the Postal Service.”

Several signs suggest Trump’s privatization push already is losing steam.

The president can’t sell off the Postal Service without the approval from Congress, and in just three months since Trump pledged action on the issue, a majority of House members and 42 senators have signed onto resolutions in support of keeping the agency under federal control. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith and all five DFL House members are among the resolutions’ co-sponsors.

It may be no coincidence, then, that the recommendations of Trump’s hand-picked task force on postal reform, delivered to the White House in August, have not yet been released to the public.

Workers who rallied in downtown Minneapolis today said they fear privatization would drastically reduce mail service — especially in rural areas of the country — and cost many of the agency’s 500,000-plus employees their jobs. They pointed out the USPS is the nation’s second-largest employer of military veterans, and union jobs at the post office offer family-sustaining job opportunities to people of all educational backgrounds, races and ethnicities.

Sara Huebner was earning $12 an hour as a vet tech when she applied for a job delivering mail in St. Paul nearly six years ago. The college graduate said she gave up working in her field — “It was a livable wage versus a non-livable wage,” she said — but now worries privatization could send her back to square one.

Fellow St. Paul letter carrier Matt Falbo agreed. He pointed to Amazon as the employment model potential buyers might look to copy with the USPS.

Work at the post office “is good, honest work, and it could all go away if it’s privatized,” Falbo said. “They’ll cut our benefits. They’ll cut our pay. Everything we’ve fought for all these years will start going away.”

Trump and other supporters of privatization claim the Postal Service is broke and a drain on the federal budget, but neither claim passes the truth test. The agency is a self-sustaining, independent establishment of the federal government that does not receive taxpayer funding and relies solely on revenue derived from the sale of postal services and products.

Meanwhile, the Postal Service and its employees continue to enjoy overwhelming support from the Americans they serve. The most recent Pew Research Center poll, released in February 2018, showed that the USPS has an 88 percent favorability rating.

“The mail has been around for 200-plus years,” said Craig Barrett, who has delivered mail for 16 of those years. “It’s something everyone throughout the country relies on, and we’re here to fight for it.”

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Letter Carriers’ food drive restocks local food shelves

May 12, 2018 by

Blong Moua, a Letter Carrier at Eastern Heights Post Office in Oakdale, unloads his truck on Stamp Out Hunger day 2018.

Stamp Out Hunger is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, and it’s powered by union members.

Letter Carriers across the country collected non-perishable food along their routes today for delivery to local food pantries. The carriers’ union, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), organizes the food drive each year.

Other unions co-sponsor the event, including the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the AFL-CIO.

For St. Paul-based UFCW Local 1189, it’s a natural partnership. UFCW members work in many of the grocery stores where people shop for their food donations. That includes Cub Foods, where Second Harvest Heartland sets up collection centers on Stamp Out Hunger day.

Local 1189 volunteers adopted collection sites in Oakdale and Cottage Grove this year, helping Letter Carriers unload their trucks and packing donations into semi-trailers.

“It’s kind of fun,” Local 1189 member Dennis McMahon, who works at Cub Foods in White Bear Lake, said as he unloaded mail trucks in Oakdale. Volunteering for the third time, he said the event offers a chance to “get together with some people you don’t see as much as you’d like to,” as well as support a good cause.

South St. Paul carrier David Schimerowski has never missed a Stamp Out Hunger Saturday in 21 years as a Letter Carrier.
Machinists Local 1833 retirees Tom Hoppenstedt and Mary Sansom unload food at Neighbors Inc. in South St. Paul, which brought in 24,458 pounds on Stamp Out Hunger day 2018.
UFCW Local 1189 volunteers in Oakdale include (L to R) James Westin, Manzoor Wangnoo, Diana Tastad-Damer, Abraham Wangnoo, President Jennifer Christensen, Dennis McMahon and Zendaya Adkins.

Stamp Out Hunger is in its 26th year. In 2017, Letter Carriers collected 75 million pounds of food nationwide.

South St. Paul carrier David Schimerowski, a member of NALC Branch 28, said donations along his route were about the same as in previous years.

Schimerowski, in his 21st year as a Letter Carrier, has never missed a Stamp Out Hunger Saturday.

“It usually adds about an hour and a half to my route,” he said. “But I like it.”

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Letter carrier walks the (300-mile) walk to fight hunger

July 23, 2014 by
Retired letter carrier Gary Fitch will walk 300 miles in August to raise money for hunger relief.

Retired letter carrier Gary Fitch will walk 300 miles in August to raise money for hunger relief.

On Aug. 2 Gary Fitch, a retired letter carrier from St. Paul, will begin a long walk that he hopes will be a big step toward ending hunger in Minnesota.

Fitch, 62, will walk from International Falls to the State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights, arriving on Labor Day. The 300-mile journey, dubbed the Minnesota Miracle, will raise money for an endowment to fund anti-hunger initiatives across the state.

It may sound like a lofty goal, but Fitch believes it’s possible if everyone pitches in. And it all starts, he said, with the state’s union members.

“I’m asking them for a penny for every mile I walk,” Fitch said “That’s $3 to watch me bust my butt for 300 miles.

“If we got a penny a mile from 385,000 union members in Minnesota, then we’ve raised a million and a half dollars. It’s just common sense. There’s strength in numbers, and I want to show the strength we have.”

The Minnesota Miracle has received the endorsement of the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and regional labor federations in St. Paul and Minneapolis have helped Fitch get his endowment fund off the ground. Already, unions have kicked in $25,000 to jumpstart the Minnesota Miracle.

“The nest has been laid, and we’re adding to it,” Fitch said. “The checks are coming in, and my goal is to raise enough where after this is all said and done, we’ve got at least $300,000 for the endowment. That will give us enough in interest to buy 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of food every year for food shelves in this state.”

Walking the walk

The 300-mile walk across Minnesota will be the latest in a string of long journeys Fitch has taken on to give back to his community, state and country.

In 1989 Fitch rode his bicycle from St. Paul to Washington D.C., carrying nearly 4,000 handwritten letters from children fighting cancer, addressed to President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush.

“I wanted to give these kids their own personal mailman,” Fitch said. “Biking out to Washington gave them an assurance, knowing that their letters were going to get there.”

Fifteen years later Fitch embarked on an even more ambitious project. He biked from Seattle to Washington, collecting the “hopes and dreams of 23,651 schoolkids on paper,” he said. Those papers were scanned onto a flash drive, which Fitch presented to NASA.

“NASA took them, put them on the Atlantis shuttle and orbited the earth,” Fitch said. “Those kids put a circle full of hope around the planet.”

Stamping out hunger

Fitch, who walked 12 miles a day as a letter carrier, delivering mail to homes in St. Paul’s Como Park neighborhood, retired in March 2013. He’s fortunate, he said, to have worked in a job that affords him the opportunity to take on an ambitious project like the Minnesota Miracle in his retirement.

“I’ve got my union pension with the post office,” he said. “I had the blessing of being able to retire and do something like this. I represent everybody who wants to, but can’t do something like this because of whatever reason.”

The need for hunger relief is great, even in a “quality-of-life state” like Minnesota.

According to Second Harvest Heartland, the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger relief organization, one of every eight Minnesota children is at risk of hunger issues, and 9.5 percent of Minnesota households are considered “food insecure.”

“I’m hearing about all these kids missing a meal, about elderly people wondering whether they should pay their electric bills or eat,” he said. “It’s time to take care of our own, and if we can do it then every other state in the nation can do it.”

Public support wanted

The Minnesota Miracle walk will launch from International Falls Aug. 2, and unions in the area are helping Fitch organize a kickoff celebration.

Fitch’s next major stop will be Duluth, where his visit will coincide fortuitously with the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual picnic. Fitch will walk alongside his brothers and sisters from the NALC from the Duluth Labor Temple to the park where the picnic will take place.

“I’m hoping to get a couple hundred people from the unions up there,” Fitch said. “We need to show that labor is stepping up to the plate and making a difference.”

Fitch also has reached out to food shelves across the state, offering the Minnesota Miracle as an opportunity to raise awareness and funds in their communities. The website, minnesotamiracle.com, offers pledge forms communities can use to stage their own “walks against hunger” on days Fitch passes through town.

“I’ve offered myself as a vehicle for any food shelf,” Fitch said. “If people want to come out and walk on behalf of their local food shelf, I’m a vehicle. I’ll usually be walking from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The rest of the time I’m going to be out soliciting my behind off, wherever I’m at.”

Fitch welcomes company along his journey. A map with his planned route is posted on minnesotamiracle.com, and Fitch will have his phone’s GPS locator turned on, so that anyone wishing to join him can find his location by looking at the website.

“I’ve got stories to tell, and I’m anxious to listen to a lot of them,” he said. “That’s going to be my enjoyment on this thing – meeting the people I meet and making a difference for them, for everybody that wishes they could.

“And when it’s all said and done I’m going fishing.”

Want to give?

Supporters can donate any amount online at minnesotamiracle.com. Second Harvest Heartland is collecting online donations for the Minnesota Miracle through September.

Donors also can mail checks for the Minnesota Miracle to the Minnesota AFL-CIO, 175 Aurora St., St. Paul, MN 55103. All donations to Minnesota Miracle are tax deductible.

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Twin Cities Letter Carriers deliver over 1 million pounds in annual food drive

May 28, 2014 by
Vicki Beebe, a Community Services liaison for the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, assisted Letter Carrier Jon Denardo to unload his truck outside the Neighbors Inc. food shelf in South St. Paul.

Vicki Beebe, a Community Services liaison for the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, assisted Letter Carrier Jon Denardo to unload his truck outside the Neighbors Inc. food shelf in South St. Paul.

Union Letter Carriers delivered for food shelves and families in need across the Twin Cities Metro Area May 10, collecting over 1 million pounds of food donated by people along their mail routes.

The National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, which celebrated its 22nd year in 2014.

Letter Carriers from Minneapolis and St. Paul combined to collect 774,892 pounds of food May 10. Cash donations from the area amounted to $61,456, which will purchase 286,552 additional pounds of food, NALC Branch 28 member Perry Schmidt, a longtime food drive volunteer, reported.

The total count for the Twin Cities, then, was 1,051,444 pounds of food to help stock the pantries of Second Harvest Heartland and other local food shelves.

Stamp Out Hunger has become a day of service not only for Letter Carriers, but for volunteers across the community, including many union members. Volunteers staff distribution sites, helping carriers unload donations from their trucks.

Claudia Espino, a member of St. Paul Letter Carriers Branch 28, dropped off food at the distribution site in Sun Ray Cub Foods’ parking lot.

Claudia Espino, a member of St. Paul Letter Carriers Branch 28, dropped off food at the distribution site in Sun Ray Cub Foods’ parking lot.

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