Postal workers and their allies will observe a national day of mourning within the US Postal Service this Monday. Employees will wear black armbands, observe a moment of silence, and lower flags to half staff on the day after his funeral, to call attention to the killing of Tyson Jerome Barnette, a 26 year old Washington DC area, City Carrier Assistant, who died while delivering mail in the dark on November 23rd.
“Postal workers and our communities are angered and outraged at this senseless, unnecessary death,” declared Jamie Partridge, spokesperson for Communities and Postal Workers United (CPWU), a national network of activists fighting to save the postal service. The next delivery day after the attack on Barnette, every letter carrier in the DC area was again delivering after dark.
“We call on USPS management to end delivery after dark, to fully staff letter carrier and clerk positions to allow early start and end times for letter carriers, to adjust overburdened routes to eight hours, and restore mail processing capacity,” said Partridge.This tragedy was set up by the “consolidation” of mail processing and understaffing in the clerk craft, which has forced carrier start times later in the day, according to CPWU. Activists also claim the killing was set up by flawed implementation of automation, which has lengthened routes beyond eight hours.
The African American community is particularly hard hit by the fortunes of the postal service, which has a 21% Black workforce. As well-paid career clerk, mail handler, and city carrier jobs are being eliminated, low-paid temp jobs are being created. Barnette, a young Black man, who had worked for years as a “temp” with no benefits, had just suffered a 25% pay cut, was being forced to work in the dark on an unfamiliar route.
CPWU is calling on members of Congress to follow the example of Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington DC, who wrote the Postmaster General, demanding a justification for the increase in after dark delivery. Partridge urged Senators and Representatives to demand face-to-face meetings with PMG Patrick Donahoe, calling for an end to delivery after dark. “Enough! Not one more death due to postal mismanagement!”
What a swell idea. I want them to stop delivering after dark as does everyone in the mobile home park I live in. I live in Colorado Springs, CO and the person delivering our mail drives PAST the entrance to the park 5 – 6 times a day. On her route, there is only one area without lock boxes and it us. We are all old and do not appreciate going out in the dark especially when it is dark as well as snowy and icy. This is the best idea I have heard.
All they have to do is curtail and rotate…..it worked for years….carriers in Nebr. had to clean up everything Sat. Plus a full coverage “out”……. E.T. For many was 6:30 or after,almost two hrs after dark……they(management) out to be ashamed of not taking care of their employees….we were told at a stand up after the murder to not wear jewelry,so not to make ourselves a target
CAN YOU FRIGGING BELIEVE IT!!
I missed closing out a sentence and posted my remark before editing. The first sentence of the second paragraph should, at the end, read “much less in a totally preventable murder of a CCA carrier, apologies and swift action to move times up will be a very long time in coming, and then only under massive pressure from employees or legislators.”
Sorry.
The lines are being drawn, as a huge number of letter carriers and others sympathetic to their being out after dark in dangerous neighborhoods and conditions put more pressure on management to finally do something smart: hire more clerks at the plants where far too many were forced to retire to get mail to offices on time, and move carrier start times up to much more reasonable times.
In a reasonable world, one would think there wouldn’t be sides to this serious problem, but since one party is management of the USPS, rest assured that thanks to monumental egos that are loathe to admit wrongdoing any time, much less in a totally preventable murder of a CCA carrier. Their initial reaction, a totally hypocritical and pathetic statement that claimed that postal employees’ safety was their number one concern, and an announcement of an investigation by the Inspector General which will take months to discover the obvious, was met with derision and only serves to widen the gap of credibility they have with craft employees.
Management is embarrassed, to be sure, but they will quickly blame the murder on the still-at-large suspect, and we do have to remember that as well, and hide behind a single incident scenario to avoid making the changes desperately needed unless pressure keeps building. This is not the time to step down. If carriers have to raise Hell for months, they must, and never allow management or Donohoe one moment’s rest from what happened. It is pathetic that a murder was committed because of the insipid working hours, and will be even more so if management refuses to accept responsibility and bring carriers in at least 45 minutes earlier for those at the 8:00 CST time, and 90 minutes for those having to wait until 9:00 or later, again in CST. Failure to act will only solidify craft animosity and productivity will plummet. Put that in your DOIS program and smoke it.