WASHINGTON — U.S. Postal Service worker Mallory Shepard says she needs a lifeline.
“We are so short-staffed all of the time. I am currently doing the work that three people used to be staffed for,” she said. “So much more has been put on each person as far as the workload.”
Shepard and the Postal Service hope help is on the way in a piece of bipartisan legislation. The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would free up nearly $50 billion in expenses over the next decade and allow it to modernize and improve service across the country.
The House passed the legislation with bipartisan support last month. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.
Shepard, a union shop steward who has worked as a mail clerk for almost a decade in Waverly, Iowa, said she wants savings from the bill to enable the agency to hire more employees to improve customer service.
Thanks to an uptick in pandemic-related e-commerce, Covid’s spreading among postal workers and a surge in packages, the Postal Service faced widespread criticism for longer delivery delays in the last two years.
