June 23, 2016 PADUCAH, KY – Thursday’s heat may have had you putting off that walk outside to get your mail. But, many people have to work outside no matter the temperature. That includes workers with the United States Postal Service.
The heat isn’t just a problem for mail carriers working outside. It’s also a problem inside a local post office. The Avondale Post Office has been without air conditioning since June 15, according to CMI Heating and Air Conditioning. The company is replacing three 20-year-old units at the post office.
No air conditioning means a miserable work environment, and even a hospital visit for one employee who got too hot. Despite having industrial grade fans, it’s still often hotter than 90 degrees there. “We’ve got to deliver the mail. I mean, the mail never stops coming, and our customers want it. They expect it, and that’s the service we want to provide to them,” Carroll said.
Carroll tells us that employee who was hospitalized was treated and is back at work.
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The real problem is that many of the employees always were great people. It wasn’t their title. Boss’s, or run of the mill worker, don’t matter. Any organization is
lead by good, or bad leadership. There are always examples of hero’s and trash, and each worker has to decide by their own actions how they should be seen. I was lucky,I learned by people that were good. It wasn’t just one craft, it was all of them. They served the public with respect, and honor. While a lot of things could be different, how can anything change if the ability to talk is lost?. What everyone doesn’t see is without the rest, everything is lost.
without the others it’s a losing game. Some people are just stupid, but not the best.
Same thing in my office. Plus we have a mice problem. Mice droppings in my hold mail trays every day!!
you can bet your bippie that IOD Muffin Megan is sitting in her office with a sweater on because the air conditioning is set on 60! survey says!
Try phoenix Arizona, twice within two weeks out 3-4 days and certain parts of the building for longer than that,with temps hitting almost 120 last week.They have eliminated all city building mechanics and letting multiple stations in disrepair.Taking care of the folks?Really?
We as city carriers and rural carriers too are expected to be in all types of weather, and to a degree we are acclimated to all of it. However, as we age, the extremes are more taxing than they once were.
I’m 55 now and will retire soon with 32+ years. I was lucky enough to be only 23 when I started, and I’ve been in damn near everything except a full blown hurricane, although remnants do occasionally sweep across Arkansas because we’re only one day’s drive from the Gulf of Mexico. I had a funnel cloud go over my head during a nasty thunderstorm that luckily didn’t touch down, lightning strikes so close they almost made me mailman flambe, and some nasty winter weather too. In northwest Arkansas, although the winter is milder than the midwest and northeast, and the Rockies, we still get our share. I have had to endure a lot but it’s better than being cooped up in an office or store all day where you don’t have any sense of time of day, whether the sun is out, nothing.
It is nice to see somebody acknowledge our having to be out in extreme heat and humidity all day in trucks that can reach 135 degrees in the back loading areas. Some of us have been overheated, had sunstrokes and even died while trying to deliver mail.
Management for the most part doesn’t have to deal with this. They do occasional street observations but pick and choose the time of year and whether it’s raining, cold, too hot, etc. Poor babies. They would like to push us regardless of conditions but in the heat, you must pace yourself, take a break in an air conditioned building on your route if it’s available, and drink water like a camel.
Believe it or not, walking routes are probably a tad bit cooler than the metal ovens we drive. Heat seeps up through the floorboards, comes through the vents, and only has two pathetic little vents in the back that provide no relief or air flow. The deck of the LLV can and does get too hot to touch, and the paint on steering wheels peels and comes off on your hands. The dash fan just blows the hot air that comes through the windshield. The overall design of the LLV was terrible. There could and should have been a screen type back door that could be locked, or used while the carrier was in the LLV to provide more air flow.
The heat wears us out, gives us nasty dehydration headaches, sometimes no matter how much we drink, makes muscles cramp, and makes us really cranky sometimes. So if your old timer letter carrier isn’t his or her usual self right now, cut them a little slack. They are not having a good time.
Finally someone covers this story! Try Texas too.
It’s time for the NALC to disband because they are often matched by management. It’s time for a new union to help the carriers. As a former carrier turned firefighter 7 years ago. I see the firefighter Union does a real job benefiting its firefighters, and there is not stupid harrasement by management . Fred Rolando this how a real Union works