Herculean task
Wisconsin postal employees say they’re working nonstop to process huge volumes of mail.
A shortage of employees and a “historic” volume of mail has led to massive nationwide delays in mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service.
And southeastern Wisconsin residents tracking packages may have noticed that many seem to sit at the Postal Service’s Oak Creek distribution facility for long periods on their way into or out of the state.
What’s going on?
Local Postal Service employees say they’ve been working mandatory seven-day, 12-hours shifts for weeks now, including Christmas Day shifts. Those working in Oak Creek also say some work has shifted to a new distribution center — but because parts of it are still under construction, workers can’t use machines to swiftly sort packages and must do so by hand.
Current employees requested to not be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media and fear losing their jobs in reprisal.
Bob Sheehan, communication specialist for the service’s Lakeland District, said the Postal Service is facing staffing shortages on top of a record volume of mail. Teams are working around the clock, he said, to “address issues” and deliver mail.
Sheehan would not comment on whether the Postal Service’s new, 425,000-square-foot mail sorting and processing facility has started operation.
The new sorting facility was promised to be a “significant improvement of parcel processing.” It was set to be at least partially operational by November, with construction complete in 2021.
Multiple employees independently confirmed that the facility is operational and that all mail sorting is being done manually because machines have not been installed.
One worker, who was on her 10th consecutive workday, said it takes hours to sort what a machine could do in minutes, comparing it to manually sorting coins into piles of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies instead of dropping the pile into a coin sorter.
Matilda Cretens, who started working for the Postal Service as a holiday hire Nov. 15, said she worked briefly at the older Oak Creek facility on South 10th Street, which she said was packed with “mail everywhere.”
She soon was moved to the new facility off College Avenue, which she described as a much larger warehouse divided into three sections. When she started, only the center was open, but one of the side sections was later opened to make room for more mail.
The volume of mail quickly filled the new facility, Cretens said, adding there were points where employees were practically “barricaded in your area” as forklifts came to pick up sorted mail.
Cretens said she felt workers and
management were “in over their heads” as nobody expected things to get as bad as they did. There was rarely more instructions for a shift than the idea that you “just keep moving.”
New employees received little training before starting, Cretens said, and she found herself coaching fellow employees despite having worked there just two weeks.
With different types of mails and different procedures for mail outside Wisconsin, there’s a lot to know beyond the basic “scan the package and put it into the correct bin,” she said.
“There are lots of exceptions to the rules and no one really explained the oddball ones,” she said. “It’s not fair to expect people just walking into a job to just get it right away.”
She said most employees began working 12-hour days in November, but many still had one day off a week — typically Sunday.
After about a week or so at the new facility, she said she and others were told they would have no days off through Christmas.
Sheehan would not comment on working conditions.
“The Postal Service’s 644,000 employees continue to work diligently to address issues and remain focused on delivering the holidays and beyond for the nation,” he said.
‘Your package will get there’
Maureen Denny is one person who’s experienced delays. On Dec. 3 she mailed a package from Elm Grove, where she lives, to Duluth, Minnesota, for her aunt’s 95th birthday.
She upgraded to Priority Mail, which typically promises delivery in two days.
It was a week before the package showed that it had arrived in Oak Creek. It was sent to Milwaukee, then to a distribution center in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was finally delivered Dec. 18 — two weeks after it was mailed.
Denny said her aunt, a Benedictine sister, was “stopping everyone in the hallway with a package” asking if it was for her.
“I should have walked it to Duluth,” Denny said.
For customers who paid for Priority 2-Day shipping or other upgraded services only to see packages stuck in transit — or in Oak Creek — Sheehan said Priority Mail Express is the only service backed by a “postage guarantee” if the Postal Service fails to deliver or attempt delivery of the mail in the promised time frame.
“Customers may apply for a refund at USPS.com,” Sheehan said. “Please be sure to have the tracking number and mailing receipt available.”
One postal carrier told Now News Group some residents are understanding with the delays, but others get angry. He said the biggest issue is people track their package who see it’s in Oak Creek and think it’s at the local post office but it’s not; it’s in the sorting/distribution annex and people cannot pick up packages there.
Cretens quit in mid-December due to the workload and schedule requirements. She feels lucky; many of her coworkers aren’t in the position to leave the job, she said.
She hopes people understand that workers are doing what they can.
“The majority of the people who are there are working really, really hard,” she said. “Your package will get there, you just need to be patient and kind.”