6 thoughts on “Family: West Virginia Postal Worker Dies After Collapsing on Route”

1. “Be safe…but hurry up”…the postal motto!!!!

2. Never underestimate the hatred usps mgmt. has for those who actually do the work.

3. Fred Rolando has blood on his hands for all these incidents. Under his watch management has the right to manage(harrasse) understaffing the office to pivot. One more thing remember the routes being overadjusted through the JRAP. This is why these poor letter carriers are dying in the line of duty.

4. Another good job from the pathetic NALC. Under Fred Rolando and Bill Young more letter carriers have died in the line of duty than any other union president combined and that is 100% the truth. Our union lets management understand the offices purpose and our union reps turn a blind eye to itbecause they don’t get to do there routes. We are forced to pivot skip our lunches and our union reps says management could force you to skip your lunch because it is managements right to manage .
   Vote no on this contract and Vote Fred Rolando out and David Noble in.

5. Another heat related death of a city letter carrier. Whether this fellow had some health conditions that made working in the hottest part of the year more dangerous wasn’t mentioned, and in the name of family privacy probably won’t be.
   While we as city carriers are supposed to be acclimated to the four seasons and the unique weather each one brings us, sometimes it isn’t enough. You can drink water until you slosh when you walk, but even that isn’t a fail safe, although not having water is stupid and a recipe for heatstroke or heat related deaths.
   We see some links here showing management trying to overturn OSHA violations after the death of a Missouri carrier, and other citations. The management at the Truman station in Kansas City was especially cruel, claiming heat “made no difference” and that carriers were expected to run full tilt, and no regard to their safety was mentioned.
   One hopes this is not the case in every office, but it goes to show you that the lip service management pays to safety, if they bother at all to give the mandatory stand up talks, and are safely protected in their air conditioned offices (unless it conks out and everybody suffers) is contradictory to their orders they give carriers.
   CCA’s especially are encouraged to work through breaks and many work through lunches because they are afraid of repercussions if they can’t complete a full route and half of another in what for them is a routine day. One former CCA told me once that she would only carry two full routes a day, and no more. NALC officers in all branches should be vigilant about this kind of overwork abuse, but many do nothing because the carriers are CCA’s, and truthfully some just run like hell, and totally ignore instructions from other carriers or union officers.
   One carrier noted his LLV registered 130 degrees in the back end, and someone reported on this web site that his LLV had reached 135 degrees! That’s hotter than the hottest temperature ever recorded at Death Valley. I recall the decks getting so hot you couldn’t touch them, heat rising through the floorboards and coming through the vents, and paint from the steering wheel peeling off on your hands. Park and loop carriers have to walk on hot asphalt and I’ll bet it gets up to 150 degrees in a parking lot on the worst days.
   Desert heat is one thing – add humidity to it especially in the south and midwest, and you have a miserable situation. A carrier can be drenched in sweat before they finish loading their LLV’s.
   Management is goal and numbers driven. District level and Area are the main culprits, who never have to touch a letter or go out on a route or basically have any public exposure at all. Their worst weather experience is having to go from a parking lot or deck to their offices. They truly do not care and have no compassion or interest in carrier safety. The fact they try to overturn OSHA fines and violations is proof to me of their indifference to craft welfare, as is their dragging their feet replacing a decrepit ugly fleet of LLV’s that should have been destroyed in demolition derbies a long time ago. I’d pay to watch that, but don’t you know every truck would die after one bumper thumper?
   Carriers: never allow any supervisor to bully you into a dangerous situation. Take a heat break, take your lunches and drink water as often as you need whether they like it or not. Is it worth your life to appease a bunch of bosses who think you’re just a number in the first place?

6. The Postal Service has been Fined in the past over deaths caused by heat. Nothing ever changes. A carrier at my office was put up for removal because she came down with frost bite. The bastards forced us out when the temperature was 21 degrees below zero. It was her fault, not management’s! I see management still takes prick pills every day, along with their coffee.

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