Despite court orders blocking changes to USPS, some locations are seeing more
PHILADELPHIA — After four federal judges blocked additional operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service and ordered it to reverse the changes that had been made, South Jersey and Delaware processing and delivery plants have started reinstalling some of the mail sorting machines that had been removed.
But in Philadelphia, nothing has changed. No machines in the Lindbergh Boulevard facility have been replaced, local union leaders and employees say, trucks are still being forced to leave on time, with or without the mail, and mail delivery is still being delayed.
In fact, despite federal court orders, more operational changes have occurred in the Philadelphia, South Jersey and Delaware processing facilities in the past week, according to union employees at all three locations.
Employees at the Southwest Philadelphia, New Castle, and Bellmawr plants were told that mail sorting machines must stop sorting the mail by 5 a.m., whether all the mail has been sorted or not. Typically, the machines start sorting mail around 1 p.m., and don't stop until the job is done. The time a machine usually finishes varies greatly and depends on the volume of mail that day.
The goal, employees believe, is to make sure all the mail makes it onto the delivery trucks by the time they need to leave, so that no mail is left behind. But instead, at least in Philadelphia, it's resulting in thousands of letter pieces going unsorted, said Laurence Love, an assistant clerk craft director who operates mail sorting machines at the Philadelphia plant.
“I've been here for 35 years and we have never had any directive to shut off a machine,” said Love.
The massive sorting machines are programmed to sort mail based on address and route, making it easy for carriers to grab their bins of mail and hit the road. Carriers usually only have to hand sort a few parcels that weren't able to go through the machines.
But by 5 a.m., those items that haven't been sorted yet are then only divided by route, not address, leaving some carriers with hundreds of pieces to sort themselves.
Not every machine has unsorted mail, but those sorting zip codes with heavy volumes, are struggling to finish, Love said. Last Sunday, which is usually the Postal Service's heaviest mail volume day, at least 20,000 pieces of mail were left unsorted across four machines.
“When you have to hand sort thousands of pieces of mail, that is delaying the mail seriously,” he said.
The USPS did not respond to requests for comment. Union leaders say it's unclear where the order for this change originated from, but they were alarmed it was being made across multiple districts.
Carriers across the city said they haven't felt the impacts of the change yet. Over time, though, it could delay carriers' work, said Frank Bollinger, business agent for the South Jersey Area Local.
Given the expected parcel increase surrounding the election and upcoming holidays, the timing of the change is especially concerning, Bollinger said.
“It has the potential of being a very major deal,” he said. “It can build up and lead to mail being left behind and mail being delayed.”
Machines reinstalled, more overtime approved
In the past three weeks, four federal judges, including one in Pennsylvania, granted preliminary injunctions that bar the Postal Service and its leader, Louis Dejoy, from making any more operational changes.