‘Like Armageddon’: Rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks

[Rogue Valley]

‘Like Armageddon’: Rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks

Employees at California postal facilities provide a glimpse of the chaos amid both the pandemic and widespread cuts imposed by the USPS.

8/20/20
Six weeks ago, U.S. Postal Service workers in the desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., began to notice crates of mail sitting in the post office in the morning that should have been shipped out for delivery the night before. At a mail processing facility in Santa Clarita in July, workers discovered that their automated sorting machines had been disabled and padlocked. And inside a massive mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles, workers fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotted fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes. Accounts from employees at California mail facilities provide a glimpse of what are the consequences of widespread cutbacks in staffing and equipment recently imposed by the postal service. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, responding to a national outcry over service disruptions and fears of voter disenfranchisement, said this week he would suspend many planned changes until after the election. But postal workers say significant damage has already been done. Until this week, the postal service was implementing a sweeping plan to remove 671 mail-sorting machines, or about 10% of its total, from facilities across the U.S. — including 76 in California.

At least five high-speed mail-sorting machines have been removed from a processing plant in Sacramento, said Omar Gonzalez, the Western regional coordinator for the American Postal Workers Union. Additionally, two of the machines have been removed in Santa Ana and six in San Diego, Gonzalez said. Processing plants serve more than 1,000 California post offices, some of which deliver to far-flung, rural addresses. Inside one sprawling facility at Florence and Central avenues in Los Angeles, which serves 92 L.A.-area post offices, seven delivery bar code sorters were removed in June, leaving three, Gonzalez said. Each of those machines, which would handle mail-in ballots, can process up to 35,000 pieces of mail per hour. “A lot of the machinery has already been gutted. Some of it has been dismantled and relocated or trashed,” Gonzalez said. Sumi Ali, the co-owner of the Yes Plz coffee subscription company, arrived July 25 to mail a batch of freshly roasted beans to customers. A frequent visitor to the complex, he was shocked at what he saw. The parking lot was crammed with semi trailers piled high with unsorted mail; the warehouse-like facility was packed “wall to wall” with mail; and there were very few employees in sight. “It was like Armageddon,” Ali said.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appears today before a Senate committee. Will the GOP Senators handle DeJoy with kid gloves?

I'd be interested to learn under what/who's authority DeJoy is destroying many hundreds of DBCS sorting machines that cost US taxpayers many hundreds of thousands of dollars each?

As an analogy, what would happen if the US Navy Secretary suddenly ordered the sinking perfectly fine Navy patrol boats? Congress would go crazy! The same principle applies with the USPS DBCS sorting machines.

 

[Napoleon]

‘Like Armageddon’: Rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks

Employees at California postal facilities provide a glimpse of the chaos amid both the pandemic and widespread cuts imposed by the USPS.



Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appears today before a Senate committee. Will the GOP Senators handle DeJoy with kid gloves?

I'd be interested to learn under what/who's authority DeJoy is destroying many hundreds of DBCS sorting machines that cost US taxpayers many hundreds of thousands of dollars each?

As an analogy, what would happen if the US Navy Secretary suddenly ordered the sinking perfectly fine Navy patrol boats? Congress would go crazy! The same principle applies with the USPS DBCS sorting machines.

USPS is not funded like any other department or agency. It is expected to be financially self sustaining by selling goods and services to the public. Unfortunately it has been operating at a loss for 14 consecutive years and warned Congress in April that it would be insolvent by the end of September if it isn’t bailed out. This is despite the fact that it has attempted to mitigate those losses by closing around 40% of its mail processing facilities between 2012-2016 and removes or relocates drop boxes that contain less than 25 items per day. As a further cost saving measure, they are decommissioning sorting machines that have no use except maybe for 1 week every four years.

So here’s a thought experiment for you. What if, instead of a $200+ billion Congressional appropriation, the Navy was expected to fund itself by selling sea shells at 15 cents each to the public. How long would it be before they decommission the first ship?

 

[Unitedwestand13]

USPS is not funded like any other department or agency. It is expected to be financially self sustaining by selling goods and services to the public. Unfortunately it has been operating at a loss for 14 consecutive years and warned Congress in April that it would be insolvent by the end of September if it isn’t bailed out. This is despite the fact that it has attempted to mitigate those losses by closing around 40% of its mail processing facilities between 2012-2016 and removes or relocates drop boxes that contain less than 25 items per day. As a further cost saving measure, they are decommissioning sorting machines that have no use except maybe for 1 week every four years.

So here’s a thought experiment for you. What if, instead of a $200+ billion Congressional appropriation, the Navy was expected to fund itself by selling sea shells at 15 cents each to the public. How long would it be before they decommission the first ship?

14 consecutive years of loss at the USPS? Hmmm... the losses appear to have started in 2006, the year this particular piece of legislation, H.R.6407 - Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, was signed into law.

H.R.6407 - 109th Congress (2005-2006): Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

 

[Napoleon]

14 consecutive years of loss at the USPS? Hmmm... the losses appear to have started in 2006, the year this particular piece of legislation, H.R.6407 - Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, was signed into law.

H.R.6407 - 109th Congress (2005-2006): Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

I think closer to the truth is that USPS has been maintaining employees and infrastructure as though the internet never happened. As the Postmaster General more-or-less testified today, the money and volume these days is in package delivery not letter delivery. So if Congress expects USPS to operate like a business instead of funding it then it hast to adapt to consumer demand.

 

[Unitedwestand13]

I think closer to the truth is that USPS has been maintaining employees and infrastructure as though the internet never happened. As the Postmaster General more-or-less testified today, the money and volume these days is in package delivery not letter delivery. So if Congress expects USPS to operate like a business instead of funding it then it hast to adapt to consumer demand.

Paper ballots are sent through the mail, which would require the the use of those mail sorting machines to efficiently sort through the mail.

Here’s a thought: get rid of the requirement demanding that the USPS set up a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future.

What nonsense is there in paying for the Post retirement health care costs 75 years in advance?

 

[Luce]

As a further cost saving measure, they are decommissioning sorting machines that have no use except maybe for 1 week every four years.

The timing is, of course, brilliant and not at all suspicious.

 

[Napoleon]

Paper ballots are sent through the mail, which would require the the use of those mail sorting machines to efficiently sort through the mail.

Here’s a thought: get rid of the requirement demanding that the USPS set up a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future.

What nonsense is there in paying for the Post retirement health care costs 75 years in advance?

USPS is still facing insolvency despite missing tens of billions of dollars in payments into that program. The bottom line is that if Congress wants USPS to operate like a business then it hast to accept the fact that continuing to operate on the basis of election year exceptions is not financially viable. Otherwise, they’ll have to fund it like every other department or agency.

 

[Napoleon]

The timing is, of course, brilliant and not at all suspicious.

Nobody said boo when USPS closed 40% of its mail processing facilities between 2012-2016. It’s not suspicious and I don’t know why the fact that services go away if you don’t pay for them is a novel concept to some people.

 

[Unitedwestand13]

USPS is still facing insolvency despite missing tens of billions of dollars in payments into that program. The bottom line is that if Congress wants USPS to operate like a business then it hast to accept the fact that continuing to operate on the basis of election year exceptions is not financially viable. Otherwise, they’ll have to fund it like every other department or agency.

The postal service Was never intended to be run like a business.

The founding fathers did not intend for it to be run as a business. It was intended to be a necessary government Service...

The mail must go through

 

[Napoleon]

The postal service Was never intended to be run like a business.

The founding fathers did not intend for it to be run as a business. It was intended to be a necessary government Service...

The mail must go through

Nobody cares what the Founders intended as it relates to USPS. Its been operating as a business since 1971. It hast to pay for its own operating costs by selling goods and services to the public. And, like any other business, if it fails to raise enough capital through those sales it will eventually stop operating.

 

[Unitedwestand13]

Nobody cares what the Founders intended as it relates to USPS. Its been operating as a business since 1971. It hast to pay for its own operating costs by selling goods and services to the public. And, like any other business, if it fails to raise enough capital through those sales it will eventually stop operating.

Then the United States should be willing to consider commandeering the mail sorting machines opperated by fed-ex, ups, and amazon in order to handle the increase of mail in ballots this year.

Once again: the mail must go through

 

[Ikari]

USPS is still facing insolvency despite missing tens of billions of dollars in payments into that program. The bottom line is that if Congress wants USPS to operate like a business then it hast to accept the fact that continuing to operate on the basis of election year exceptions is not financially viable. Otherwise, they’ll have to fund it like every other department or agency.

They should just fund the damned thing.

 

[Napoleon]

Then the United States should be willing to consider commandeering the mail sorting machines opperated by fed-ex, ups, and amazon in order to handle the increase of mail in ballots this year.

Once again: the mail must go through

No, but Congress can contract them to process it or fully fund the USPS like every other department or agency.

 

[Luce]

Nobody said boo when USPS closed 40% of its mail processing facilities between 2012-2016. It’s not suspicious and I don’t know why the fact that services go away if you don’t pay for them is a novel concept to some people.

Uh huh. Not at all suspicious that they waited until right before the election.

 

[Napoleon]

Uh huh. Not at all suspicious that they waited until right before the election.

The only thing suspicious about this is that Democrats suddenly care about an archaic institution that nobody wanted to pay for over the last 49 years and had nothing to say about USPS gradually dismantling itself over the last 8 years.

 

[Luce]

The only thing suspicious about this is that Democrats suddenly care about an archaic institution that nobody wanted to pay for over the last 49 years and had nothing to say about USPS gradually dismantling itself over the last 8 years.

Naw, that's not the only suspicious thing.

Why don't you want people to vote?

 

[Napoleon]

Naw, that's not the only suspicious thing.

Why don't you want people to vote?

Why don’t you want people to take some personal responsibility and drop off their own ballots?

 

[Luce]

Why don’t you want people to take some personal responsibility and drop off their own ballots?

Because we have a post office and there's a pandemic.

This is why everyone hates you MAGA folks, you know. All you do is destroy things, just to watch them break.

 

[Napoleon]

Because we have a post office and there's a pandemic.

This is why everyone hates you MAGA folks, you know. All you do is destroy things, just to watch them break.

Lol. I’m not a Trump supporter. Just a moderate tired of entertaining the endless series of whines from progressives every election cycle in defense of people almost too stupid or lazy to exist. If you don’t want to vote in person then get off your backside and take your ballot to the board of elections yourself. The postal service is a convenience not a necessity.

 

[Luce]

Lol. I’m not a Trump supporter.

Uh huh.