Manon Wojack has been a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service for more than 23 years, delivering everything from bills to paychecks to packages to residents along her north Minneapolis route.
Wojack, 49, has more than 600 deliveries on her normal route, but she would regularly pick up extra shifts. However, an increase in violent attacks on mail carriers in recent years — including an incident last month at her own station where someone pulled a gun on one of her colleagues — prompted Wojack and others to avoid working nights for their own safety.
“I used to always be on the overtime list,” she said. “But now, as things have been happening, I don’t really care to be out in the dark.”
Dozens of letter carriers rallied earlier this month to bring awareness to the rise in robberies and physical assaults. They’re also calling on the USPS to implement more measures to keep mail carriers safe as they do their jobs, and for law enforcement and prosecutors to do more to apprehend and litigate cases against attackers.
