Norton Writes to Postmaster General with Questions Following Tragic Murder of Postal Service Worker
WASHINGTON, DC – Following this weekend’s tragic murder of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter carrier Tyson Jerome Barnette in Landover, Maryland, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S Postal Service and the Census, wrote today to the U.S. Postmaster General regarding long-standing concerns about the risk of requiring postal employees to deliver mail after dark and requesting responses to several related questions within 30 days.
Norton, in her letter, wrote, “I understand the financial challenges that USPS faces because of congressional failure to move a bill. I also very much appreciate USPS’s determination to deliver mail in a timely fashion, especially during winter months, when darkness comes much earlier in the day. However, I do not recall delivery after dark being as frequent in prior years.”
The full text of Norton’s letter follows.
November 26, 2013
Dear Postmaster General Donahoe,
I write concerning the tragic death of Tyson Barnette, a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter carrier who was killed on Saturday evening while delivering mail on his designated route in Landover, MD. As a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S Postal Service and the Census, I am deeply concerned about the apparent risk of requiring postal employees to deliver mail after dark.
I understand the financial challenges that USPS faces because of congressional failure to move a bill. I also very much appreciate USPS’s determination to deliver mail in a timely fashion, especially during winter months, when darkness comes much earlier in the day. However, I do not recall delivery after dark being as frequent in prior years. I therefore ask that you send me responses to the following questions:
1) Is delivery after dark routine across the National Capitol Region?
2) Is delivery after dark routine in the District of Columbia?
3) What are the reasons that mail cannot be delivered during daylight hours?
4) Has there been an increase in delivery after dark in recent years? If so, has this increase been a result of personnel cuts?
5) Have there been cuts in the number of letter carrier personnel in the District of Columbia? In the region? If so, how many personnel have been cut?
6) Do the after-dark delivery hours reflect cuts in other parts of USPS that impact the timeframe that mail is delivered?
7) What changes, if any, are being considered to reduce the risk to the lives and safety of letter carriers?
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. I ask that you give full and fair consideration to this request, consistent with applicable law, rules, and regulations. I request a response within 30 days.
Sincerely,
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Is anyone in charge? It’s been at least 3 years and still no progress. Can’t anyone come up with a plan? Maybe if they stopped the $5.5 billion dollar payments for retirement benefits.
If we have less mail to deliver,why would we need to be out so late? Under staffing is not the
No excuse for poor service. Need new leadership.
Well Senator Holmes, it’s been more than 30 days since our brother was murdered. How’s that information request working? The PMG doesn’t care what you think or what you want. You should be concentrating on cutting service, not a murder.
I had the opportunity to cut bulk rate. Thought I would case it after I finished my route. It’s easier to case mail in the dark inside a warm office. But MGT. said I couldn’t do it. Had to leave 6 tubs of flats to start the next day. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID.
Simple solution: Move the small SCF’s BACK!!!!!
Fire Donawho.
We should go on strike about this but only 1% would show up and the rest of the carriers are afraid they will be fired so they put their lives and safety on the line.
Eric Cartman. Your statement is 100% correct. Carriers living in the trenches are dwelt the same conditions as you
clearly stated. Unless a person has been there they cannot realize the deteriorated conditions that exist in most large post offices. Management has gone postal creating workplace conditions that employees experience in 3rd world countries as in Central America.
Yeah J, I call bullshit on his post.
when I started in 1984 our start time was 6:30am…sometimes they brought us in at 6.
as a recently retired letter carrier, here is whats going on…all over. as carriers retire, leave,whatever, they are not replaced. multiple open routes are a daily problem. carriers are required to deliver their own rt. plus additional deliveries on other rts. sometimes up to 2 hrs. extra. starting times are pushed back later and later because the clerks are short staffed also. they cant get the mail sorted in a timely manner. carriers are waiting around for their mail. so, instead of hiring more clerks, mgt. pushes back the carriers start times putting us our in the dark delivering mail. especially in the winter months. MGT. DOESNT CARE! yet, they preach safety to us constantly. give me a fkin break!
Must be Russian postmaster in Siberia
Where was it -37 degrees lately ?
I am a postmaster that everyone here hates. But I had carriers out past 7 pm and it was 37 below zero with 15 mph winds. The carriers had been out since 9 that morning. I contacted my manger who was home in his fucking warm house and asked him if i can bring the carriers in as it was getting too dangerous out there for them. He told me to deliver the mail or I am fired, so you can see what I go thru. It is the upper ass holes that make this judgement call. I am retiring in two months and this place can go to hell especially those higher up suck asses.
Voice of the employee has been silenced. Management roars.
Carriers should file occupational disease resulting from anxiety due to forced-pressured to work in hazard conditions. Indentured employees without any recourse for workplace safety. Should get medical attention for mental condition brought about by workplace forced pressures. Go the workman compensation route and receive 75% tax free income. Beats being in the micro managed lions den.
It will always be about making their scores for bonus and will never be truly about safey
No duh its unsafe and its hard to get the job done right in the dark! Why cant the BT time start be 630am-5pm to be the rush hour and save more money! Oh I forgot the P.S. Doesn’t have a brain or care about anything right!
Correction -; Carriers reporting time moved forward 2 hours. 9:-9:30.
Large offices have route that have to be covered daily and do not have necessary carriers due to scheduled leave, unscheduled leave as well as vacant routes. Reporting time moved back 2 hours resulting in late leaving resulting in late return time. Even later return time for carriers assisting in covering vacant routes. 8;00-9:00pm tues AFTER LAST HOLIDAY(Veterans). Safety of carriers is not considered. District STAPH from should be held accountable and have authority to take action to eliminate cause of offices receiving mail so late that carriers allotted
street time does not allow return before darkness. Dark by 5:40 and 1-2 hours left on street as having to assist on vacant route. Should receive hazard pay.
Congresswoman Norton, the short days due to the time of year are not relevant. This has been going on for at least the last year, including in the summer, nationwide, during the longest days of the year.
It is 100% the fault and responsibility, of the corrupt, unethical, unqualified, and incapable postal mgmt, at all levels.
Same thing is happening in the Houston District. Houston is processing mail for Beaumont and many many surrounding areas because of processing plant closures. Starting times are 9 a.m. and many carriers are working in the dark.
In Spartanburg it is the norm to be out until 7-8o’clock supervisors could care less. It will take more carriers getting hurt or worst before things change. It is all about their bonus.
@J Q CARRER,
meeze thinks that you wre trying to shove my sadnwiches that you tooked and wre trying to shove through that opeing in the home. Mail no, my sawndiches yes…That was you, No ?
but wtah kind of sadwndich was it ? I prefer kok/n/kumm in bweteen 2 wet lips….
Simple solution but Management will waste a lot of money before implementing this idea. So here goes Suckas. Case all bulk flats up in the P.M. Have the carriers come back about 2 hrs prior to ET and case the flats. In the morning, case up first class and periodicals. Nothing new, but Management will pay before listening to craft.
a home owner opened the door with a gun pointed at me. It was after dark, sevenish, I was trying to fit his mail into the door slot and he thought someone was breaking in. Safe? No. Of course not. Addresses are difficult to see on the houses and addresses on the mail Impossible to read in the dark. Not to mention the three bundle system we are now forced to manage. The black ice under the dusting of snow helps too…
ATTENTION-READ THIS;
I deliver mail, and especially att night times, I sell my sandwsisches every time it gets dark, and biz is good at night, well when I deliver my sandwsiches and my mail and after hours imight add 2, I never get robbed. I do not think any is getting taken at night, but this is another atempt to get a pay raise and lie about getting taken. I sell sandwsiches during my shift, and I do not robbed, never i do. This is all your faked atempt to get mor money out of a dying bizness. USPS should open in Satples, and sell sadnwsiches and they would make much money, and sell this food at any hour. This may help the finacnes a bit. What say you barryB…
Sad as this tragedy is, and as stupid as it is to have letter carriers out after dark delivering mail, it’s even sadder that so many people are more willing to blame te postal service than the criminal who pulled the trigger. I suggest as one element of the answer to question 7 of the congresswoman’s letter that our 2nd amendment rights be unequivocally restored to all American citizens including those living in DC and its suburbs, and to Postal employees as well.
Back in 2001, I returned back from a route and immediately sent back out without a flashlight onto an unfamiliar route. I told my postmaster that it was unsafe without any light and I was told use the street lamps. As I was completing the pivot, I was on a block without any street lights. As normal, you walk across the customer yards to next house. At the end of that block, I took a step, thinking I was going into another yard, but unfortunately, it was a 8 ft drop into someone’s driveway. I fell, dropping all the mail and quickly grabbing the concrete ledge as I went down. I pulled myself up and carefully walk down the embankment, went back to the LLV and pulled into the driveway to use my lights. Pickup the mail and went back to office. Showed the postmaster my scratchs and was told, if I report it, I get a letter of warning for being unsafe. Management only cares about mail not the employees.
Our mail is processed at approx 3-4am not delivered to our office ( 20min. Away) until 7:30am……yrs ago mail was processed at 3-4am and we received it at 5:30 am…..?????
NO GOOD REASON FOR MAIL TO BE DISPATCHED SO LATE
ESPECIALLY SINCE YRS AGO WE WERE PROCESSING MORE MAIL THAN NOW ACCORDING TO MANAGEMENT VOLUMN HAS DECLINED….and delivery has become later and later.
It’s easy fix but the Postal Service won’t do it. Expand instead of reducing collections getting the mail to the plants earlier. First Class and Second Class along with whatever bulk they can process by a cut off time. Any First or Second Class received by the Plant after the cutoff time should be sent raw to the various Post Offices. Let them process it and get it on the street that day. Sound familiar? That is the way we used to operate and delivered mail in a more timely manner. Now, all they worry about are the numbers they can show through automation. It is a part of the efficiency of our work but should not be the sole tool used to get the mail out. Everything we can do to move the mail earlier should come into play.
To all my fellow craft workers, regardless of the craft, have a great turkey day from this carrier to yours !
To you mgmt. slugs here, go to hell.
Everything comes back on the Letter Carriers.Instead of making the plant run the mail earlier, the Post Office makes the Letter Carriers start later. Many plants have been merged together so transportation must travel a greater distance to deliver the mail to the offices when the mail was sorted in house. Less not forget
the management bonus system at work here, the more productive the plant looks the bigger the bonus. Management will take care of their own, big goings on if a manager gets killed. Hire another Part-timer it will be ok.IDIOTS
I thank the generation of union officers that came long before I started in the postal service. They had the foresight to add to our local agreement over 30 years ago that” union and management both agree that delivery of mail after dark is unsafe and will not be tolerated except for centrally lighted delivery.” Management tries to get that out of our local every contract and fails every time. Thank you to those with that foresight and knowledge.
Congressional Delegate Norton held these same hearings in the 90’s for this exact same reason. Now, as then, there will be a lot of obfuscaction and tap dancing while ducking the REAL issue, which is substandard management, lack of street supervision and poor attendance control!
Hey Congresswomen…its the norm now! Where have you been hiding?
You want answer…SEE CONGRESS and the PMG is following orders!
What a dumb broad, DUH…
Mail has to leave the processing plant before the carriers can even start there mail. Our plant used to process our own prime mail, mail that is for all the zip codes we service, then would go to other machines to be sorted for the carriers. Now Denver sorts most of our prime mail, which then takes an hour and a half to truck it to our office. Often large amounts of mail arrive late in the day, causing mail to be dispatched late to the final office. There is no logical reason for Denver to process our prime, then our office to finish. It is just poor management. This type of bad planning is happening all over the country. The current postal plan calls for shutting down over a hundred more processing plants. How much this complicates the issue only time will tell.
Deceive, deflect, and deny. The postal mgmt. mantra.
The pmg is going to make a statement ?
Standby for more of the usual; lies, corruption, and unethical behavoir.
I am a letter carrier out of Sacramento California, Royal Oaks post office (rocu) I totally agree that it is unsafe to deliver mail after dark. It is very unfortunate that this had to happen, management is not concern about the letter carriers safety. They say one thing yet do another. It is all about getting the mail out. I am pretty sure that letter carriers all over the nation can tell you about problems that they have had on their route particularly after dark. We have had carriers in the Sacramento district out delivering mail after 10:00 PM. This is a shame before God. Can management have the carriers start earlier the answer to this is yes. Can management get the mail to the carrier earlier again I’m sure they can. It’s not only the people, but the dogs a lot of carriers have been attacked by dogs after dark
what this all boils down to is the post office needs to stop adding on to routes, hire more people, get more vehicles get the mail to the carriers and earlier and start the carriers at an earlier time.