postal workers were concerned about the health – now their jobs on the line, and his abilities

Every Melissa Rakestraw morning in the parking lot of the post in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, until exactly 7:30 when they go inside must start the daily mail sorting systems. Before the pandemic Rakestraw crown, who worked for the US Postal Service for 25 years, is not ashamed to arrive early. It would go and spend time with their colleagues joke about Chicago sports before their turn. Now they do not want to spend another minute in cramped office, as she did. mail after sorting room, where you can work at a time up to 70 people to be, she goes to her van and scrub everything with Clorox wipes that they themselves bought. On their way, urging customers to six meters stand out if it gives them the emails, and trying not to think about their possible exposure to the virus, or would affect them as asthmatic. “They literally can not function if you think about all the ways you might come into contact with the virus,” says Rakestraw. “The fear would be absolutely crippling.” Rakestraw is just to keep one of the millions of workers, the land above the water of most Americans stay indoors and wait crown to stop its deadly spread. But she and the other 600,000 other employees, US Postal Service are in a unique position, a dual crisis: Looking across vorderster of a health crisis without precedent, to stay healthy, while their organization inches toward a fiscal cliff might it could send many of them to the labor office. Many employees of postal services have seen their burden of double work, started more medicines and food since the Americans ordered online from their homes. But the volume of mail – the world’s biggest source of income of the agency – has fallen. Earlier this month, Megan Brennan, the US Postmaster General said the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the loss of revenue could reach $13 billion this fiscal year. Last month, the federal government set up a loan of $10 billion for the USPS as part of his economic package crown $2.2 Katherine, keep the USPS executives woefully inadequate. The Agency’s Administrative Board of Governors appointed by President Donald Trump, managing $75 billion to continue appealed to Congress for the operation. This precarious situation makes one exhausted and anxious workers feel worse. As of April 15, nearly 900 workers tested positive for the virus, tested according to spokesman David Partenheimer USPS. union officials say that thousands more are put in quarantine. Partenheimer acknowledged there are “some dead” among employees, but an exact number has not been able to provide. In conversations with a dozen USPS personnel as Rakestraw, employees across the country, they said without adequate supplies, such as masks and gloves often works. They described the dirty work, and the inability to be able to meet the social distancing protocols. They all felt the government they left behind, and possibly endanger, not having to strengthen their organization. “We have said that we are much more workers. What our work is only now necessary. We are putting all our lives at risk,” says Rakestraw. She does not understand, he says, because the federal government to provide step toward more help. Stay up to date on the growing threat to global health, by signing up for our daily newsletter crown. The postal service has been affected already in financial difficulties before the pandemic. mail volume declining for years, as more and more people communicate and do business online. The agency has been seriously crippled by a 2006 law requiring health benefits make fund for retired employees, a very specific mandate that the cost of at least $70 billion. In 2019 alone, it recorded a net loss of $8.8 billion, after this year’s annual report to Congress. The agency shaky finances, along with the collapse coronavirus induced in mail volume, the service have suggested “the edge,” said the representative. Gerry Connolly, who heads the congressional subcommittee on the push for more funds monitored. “But the essential services have to go beyond.” After the US crown hit, and the government has begun to companies interested in designing their aid package, both Democrats of the House and Senate pushed upwards of $20 billion in direct support of the post, but ultimately it is only a $10 billion credit loan in the package that Trump has signed a law last month. Democratic aides said the Finance Minister Steven Mnuchin, who led the negotiations for the White House to receive a drain for the loan agency rejected. The US aviation industry, in comparison has received $58 billion dollars, half in grants. A spokesman for the Treasury said that the loan administration and work with USPS support him in action. Proponents of more bailout funds for USPS claim that the decision was political Mnuchin and stressed that the Task Force has led the agency pushed for cost-cutting reforms. Trump has often railed on the pole. “It ‘ideologically driven,” says Connolly of the opposition government, to fund the agency. “It ‘s great. It’ union. And they want to privatize. And this is their agenda in the midst of a pandemic. To me, that’s disgusting.” USPS executives, in turn, pushing been around for more. “While Congress and the administration is taking steps to support businesses and industries across the country, it is imperative that you take steps to ensure the finances of the post are the basis of the service, and allow us to continue to carry out our vital role during the pandemic, “said Brennan. said in a declaration 10 April, the day after the Board of Directors Congress, would be an additional 75 billion $workers demand all over the country, the debate on the future of their jobs in Washington distribution are, but they focus on immediate concerns.: to find the right materials to keep you safe and your place of work clean as it has become clear that it is a ze to get the d the central role of the country by the pandemic. USPS said that workers’ safety is the top priority of the organization. Millions of masks, gloves and cleaning and disinfection were alerts are sent to 30,000 sites across the country, the organization said in a statement on 2 April. He also said that every effort was made to be observed released with social distancing measures and purification protocol by the Center for the control and prevention of disease. USPS personnel in nine cities in an interview with TIME say their working conditions vary. Kelly Mathaw, a postman from Detroit says his management team, the purchase of gloves for them in the supermarket and redeemed for any proactive bought to get the necessary protection for her and her colleagues to her. But others say as the virus spread rapidly across the country last month, provides a protective hardly have been, and their buildings are dirty. Rakestraw, the carrier from Illinois, said his plant has a wall sanitizer dispenser, but no one says to fill individual containers carriers when they go on their routes. It relies on its supply of disinfectant wipes. Maria Risener, a window clerk in Lynden, Washington said that during most of the month of March, there are no gloves were that their size is small or extra-fit small hands. He could not do his job in sizes that were available in the final analysis, that just do not use them. Sneeze guards on the windows in his office were installed on March 27th, but from that point, there were over 3,700 confirmed cases crown in Washington state, an early hotspot for the virus. It reminds customers enter and cough without their faces. “They have made us what we could and it just did not have time,” says Risener their employer. “There’s a lot of fear is with a lot of postal workers in progress.” Workers have also expressed concerns about the general cleanliness of their work. The USPS has sent a note to the direction on February 3, the title of “influenza and coronavirus cleaning contingency” that establish guidelines for cleaning equipment by CDC. Many workers said they felt that the advice has been largely discarded. Workers in New Jersey and New York City – two of the most affected areas of the country -described bathrooms, missing in March and April, respectively, soap and paper towels. “Our office is always quite dirty,” says Risener. “But now, with this crown obviously present these conditions an even bigger problem.” The caretaker asked his office to only clean work two hours a day of the week is the contract says, and was also recently quarantined. During this period Risener can forget the free time to empty the trash. “The guardian replacing our office said it was dirty, [and] did not want everything clean. … and is not responsible for them.” Union leaders recognize that represent postal workers there were discrepancies in the distribution of supplies and they say they are working feverishly with implementation USPS to correct problems. “If you have to have to go gaps 30,000 post offices. You’ve just got to find,” says Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the largest trade union of USPS workers. “It is these gaps, every hour of every day. Make sure that the protocols are followed, the supplies are provided. – That ‘s what we have, but said that they faced concentrate every day,” Partenheimer, spokesman USPS It confirmed that “there is some problem faced initial supply chain.” Asked about the complaints about the cleanliness of the USPS, Partenheimer USPS services with CDC guidelines has been met and that companies handsfree is available “on demand”, particularly if an employee was positive and worked in the building. USPS leaders and some lawmakers in Washington still claim more relief for the USPS to be included in future aid packages. But even if successful, a cash infusion is not necessarily more sanitizer supply and Clorox Wipes – of which there is a general lack – or more operators to clean offices across the country. If Brennan, said the Postmaster General, the Congress that the corona losses related might this fiscal year $13 billion they got was anticipating from provisions such as paid leave and temporary workers to replace the losses of quarantine staff, both Rolando and business lines. “The post office is not saying that we can not be delivered there because we have no money,” says Rolando. “Revenues for continuing operations in the long term.” Some workers, but I firmly believe that financial lifeline would make the place safer work. It is said that the years of meager finances have created an environment in which the administration was forced to workers’ expenses to revenue of priorities. Only when the shot of a pandemic and found themselves in front vorderster that the dynamics become life threatening. “The number one priority before this was all that we call the numbers: the bosses so much work to do with the minimum number of hours used,” says Rakestraw. “I’m putting out the news, Oh, yes we follow the CDC guidelines, ‘but the personnel manager, in fact, running not because still the priority for how long these things are delivered the mail.” Partenheimer wrote in an e -mail to the moment when the safety of USPS employees is the top priority of the agency. “We are proud of our employees work in processing, transportation and delivery of mail and packages the game for the American public,” he wrote. Risener that window Schreiber Washington state, says that at least but the funds would provide a much needed morale boost – and allow her and her colleagues to stop worrying about their retirement funds while trying to stay alive. “If we get some relief Federal [], would ease the burden,” he says. “It is not only the uncertainty of the virus, but the post of uncertainty that weighs on us.” Please send tips, leads and stories from the front to [email protected].
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