Postal Horror Continues: Rape To Harassment
02/28/2002
by LEONARD SAFFIR - Staff Writer
The Lake Worth Herald Press, Inc.
The stock of the U. S. Postal Service, once a well-thought-of institution, is plunging throughout the nation in an “Enronized’’ free fall.
Following a series of articles about postal workers’ complaints in Palm Beach County, Baltimore, MD and Williamsburg, VA published on the Internet web site postalwatch.org, The Lake Worth Herald and two Observer newspapers, has been inundated with e-mail communications sent by postal workers from California to the American Virgin Island in the Caribbean.
The underlying message communicated to the newspapers is a postal service that “is out of control,” as a worker in San Diego described the situation.
Even outside the U. S. mainland postal workers are complaining.
“I, as well as many others, are at our wits end,” wrote a worker in the U. S. Virgin Islands.
“The stress is ridiculous. Since joining the USPS I have had to be on Vicodin, Percocet and other strong narcotics because of the stress that I am going through here.”
The postal worker asked The Herald to contact the attorney handling a class action suit for Williamsburg postal workers to see if he could help them.
Sexually Attacked
“Financially, the mismanaged and wasteful postal service is a budding governmental Enron,:” said Ronald Spencer, a retired mail carrier from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“Operating in a heavy-handed and paramilitary-like style, the USPS has a well-deserved reputation for mistreating its stressed-out employees,” Spencer added.
Spencer was in a three year battle with the post office. After his life was threatened he finally retired in 1997. The postal worker who threatened him eventually committed suicide
Spencer sent the newspapers a recent decision by the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing a district court decision brought by a postal worker in Sacramento, CA against the postal system.
“Cynthia Stoll was sexually harassed, raped, and abused by supervisors and coworkers at the Sacramento Post Office,” the Appellate Court said.
“As a result of the defendant’s plainly wrongful conduct, Stoll was severely psychiatrically impaired.
“She presented compelling direct evidence, which the district court failed to consider,” the court concluded.
Houston, Chicago
“If this is for real (The Herald’s anticipated assistance) then this is the GOD sent to me that I have been praying for so long,” wrote a postal worker from Houston
“I am in a battle for what I feel is my life at this time,” the worker added.
“ I have been saddened by what has become of the postal service. I have seen people I care for hurt, along with myself, by this system,” the worker wrote.
“I have been severely abused by the post office and it seems I have no recourse,” a postal worker from Chicago e-mailed the newspapers.
“I now live in a horrible cycle where I go to a horrible job where I have been threatened by the manager and constantly harassed.... my own life is in shambles. I am at the end of my rope and don’t know how to get out of this mess,” she wrote.
A message posted on an Internet web site chat room was forwarded to The Herald by the writer:
“The U. S. Postal Service is dying from dry rot, internal decay. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
Thanks were received by the Herald newspapers from a mail carrier in Grand Rapids, MI.
“I just finished reading your series of articles on www.postalwatch.org and I must say thank you very much.
“I’m so glad that someone has cast a bright light into the dark, nasty crevice that is postal management.
“There are thousands of stories of management through intimidation throughout the postal service.”
Baltimore Reaction
The Office of Inspector General of the post office recently commenced an investigation on the charges made by Baltimore postal police officers against the postal inspection service after reading a Herald article. A postal worker in Hartford, CT wrote about The Herald article:
“I congratulate you on an excellent story. Don’t expect the OIG (Office of Inspector General) to run an independent investigation.
“Most likely, they will ask the postal inspection service to supply documents; they will then review them and find no further action needs to be taken. In a year or so the officers that spoke to them will be fired for not wearing a tie or being two minutes late.
“This type of management activity is rampant throughout the United States.”
From the southern tip of Florida, a postal worker wrote:
“Great article. I am glad the employees in Williamsburg have banded together and that maybe someone will discipline management,” e-mailed a postal worker in Key West.
“The post office is run like a communist country mixed with the Mafia,” the worker wrote.
Same In New York
A postal worker in New York City echoed the comments of others.
“I read about the things that have been happening in Florida and Baltimore.
“I must say that I am not at all surprised at the situation or the outcome.
“We here in NYC have dealt with similar situations. An investigation needs to be addressed right here as well.”
“The Inspector General is a joke,” wrote the NYC postal worker.
A mail carrier from Missouri wrote the newspapers:
“I finally had enough and quit the post office.”
The writer explained he had fallen on a sidewalk that was in disrepair for three years and had to fight six months to get physical therapy.
“The postmaster was mad because I had made a claim,” he wrote.
An Indiana postal worker sent “congratulations on a terrific article.”
“If you want to hear more crap from them (USPS management) try getting them to admit they get bonuses at the end of the year,” he wrote.
“Management prefers to call them ‘incentive awards’. The problem I have with that is: if it’s an incentive award, how come EVERYONE in management gets one.
“Look around, with the USPS losing money the past two years how do they justify that?”
Tragedy
Then there is the tragedy of a 33-year-old Fayetteville, Arkansas mail carrier who shot himself to death in January 2000.
The Internet today is filled with e-mail communications between postal workers asking, “Who Killed Joel Garriot?” Copies were sent to The Herald newspapers.
Garriot was charged as being AWOL (away without leave) after a traffic accident left him unconscious in the hospital and unable to call in.
“Though he was a veteran of Desert Storm, sustaining Gulf War Syndrome with commensurate disability payments, the post office counted him absent,” wrote Paul Felton for a union web site.
Garriot was fired. The union fought to get his job back. He finally received “a last chance agreement”, as it is commonly called, and went back to work.
During a snowstorm that left a foot of snow in the area, all highways were closed.
The postmistress issued orders than anyone who didn’t come in due to the snow would be marked AWOL.
Garriot lived on one of the steepest hills in the area. He couldn’t move out of his house. He knew he would get fired again.
He called in and told the postmistress he couldn’t make it to work.
A few minutes later he drew a revolver and killed himself.
Staggering Losses
Meanwhile, financial losses in the post office are staggering.
“A new 8.7 percent (postage) rate increase being considered is not likely to save the U. S. Postal Service from another financially disastrous year, analysts say,” wrote the Federal Times an independent weekly newspaper last month.
The newspaper said the USPS had been projecting a $1.35 billion deficit for the year prior to the 9/11 terrorists attacks.
After 9/11, “it’s not clear at all what the year’s losses will be,” the newspaper quoted Richard Strasser, chief financial officer for the postal service.
Postal workers are not without some victories.
A Chicago man who sued the postal service charging he was wrongfully fired after aiding a co-worker in a sex discrimination claim, was awarded $250,000 this month by a federal jury after a week long trial. A Chicago Tribune article about the award was forwarded to the newspapers.