When the USPS Big Sky Post Office opened in July 2024, the Montana Postal Workers Union, a branch of the American Postal Workers Union representing about 400 USPS employees across the state, recommended hiring three clerks and a postmaster.
Bart Riddle is the clerk for the Montana Postal Workers Union and has worked for the USPS for 10 years. Part of his role in the union is to visit post offices like the one in Big Sky to assess the facility as it gears up for opening. From the assessment in 2024, the union concluded that three clerks and a postmaster should be hired in Big Sky’s new post office.
He hasn’t seen the Big Sky office since before the holidays, but understands that as of Jan. 2, the USPS has only hired one clerk and the postmaster.
It’s likely that the gap in union recommended staffing and the present employee numbers explains what Big Sky community members describe as long lines, lost packages and frustration, concerns that only grew in the post office’s first busy holiday season. Locals seem to be in agreement with the USPS and the union in one belief: the staff are doing the best they possibly can with the resources they have.
“The management up there is doing the best they can with what they have for right now,” Riddle told EBS on the phone. “Right now, and they’ve only hired one because they just opened in July … the hours are such that that person has to commute from Bozeman to there. She is not local.”
According to Sherry Patterson, a communications specialist at USPS, the USPS provided Big Sky with “borrowed” employees from nearby regions to assist in mail and parcel management as items flooded into the office around the holidays. Riddle explained that using borrowed staff is expensive for the USPS—it requires the agency to cover housing expenses and transportation.
A combination of schedule needs and housing costs make it difficult for the post office to recruit new employees to Big Sky, Riddle explained. “If people that live there aren’t working [for USPS], then people have to come in from out of state or somewhere else to try to work there and there’s no housing,” Riddle said.
