Washington, D.C. (Feb. 9, 2021)—Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy seeking a briefing on whether the Postal Service is effectively mitigating coronavirus infections across its workforce and to press the Postmaster General to more transparently report on employee infections and deaths.
“We are writing to request a briefing about alarmingly high numbers of coronavirus
infections and deaths suffered by postal workers during this pandemic,” the Chairs wrote. “We also request that you take proactive steps to provide greater transparency and more effective mitigation of the health risks faced by the postal workforce.”
According to the Washington Post, “coronavirus infections among postal staff have spiked.” The article continued, “More than 16,000 employees are under quarantine this week after testing positive for the coronavirus or coming in contact with someone who had.”
Postmaster DeJoy also admitted recently that the Postal Service lost 119 postal workers to coronavirus and more than 14,000 employees have contracted coronavirus nationwide.
On November 20, 2020, the Postal Service Inspector General found that the Postal Service was falling short on its implementation of preventive and treatment measures for its workforce.
Chairs Maloney and Connolly requested the Postmaster General provide a briefing no later than March 1, 2021 on these troubling reports, his efforts to provide greater transparency about the toll of the pandemic on the Postal Service, and his progress on implementing recommendations from the Inspector General.
Click here to read the letter to Postmaster General DeJoy.
If the Baltimore P&DC is typical of plants across the country, its no wonder infections have spiked. Approximately 10% of employees don’t wear masks at all, while many others who wear them don’t bother to cover their noses. Another 10% keep their masks under their chin the entire time. Only about half of all employees wear masks properly. Management does nothing to enforce so-called mandatory mask wearing. Maskless employees regularly congregate in groups while many others don’t observe social distancing by constantly walking within inches of people who are vainly trying to protect themselves and others. It has been this way since the beginning. The plant was recently visited by representatives of D.C. headquarters who witnessed this, but nothing was done. Not even the presidential executive order requiring masks on federal property makes any difference to management. Management needs to stop the lying when they claim to care about safety.