SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Senator Mike Rounds has continued to put pressure on the Postal Service, recently making statements on the Senate floor addressing mail service in South Dakota that he calls “unacceptable”.
In this ongoing saga that began with the introduction of the “Delivering America Plan, ” Senator Rounds has been outspoken to the point of requesting an investigation from the USPS Office of the Inspector General. This year, officials from the OIG made trips to the Mount Rushmore State. Since then, he said nothing has changed.
When Senator Rounds spoke on the Senate floor, he said he heard from postal workers who told him they were instructed to hide piles of late mail when inspectors came in.
“The OIG reiterated to my team and to me that they had to do this investigation clandestinely,” recalled Rounds. “If postal service leaders caught wind of where OIG representatives were going to be on which days, they could try to manipulate the results. Turns out, they were correct.”
Members of the postal workers union said they have not heard of these instances at their facilities, but it didn’t shock them either. In Sioux Falls, APWU Local 718 Clerk Craft Director Danielle Jones told Dakota News Now that management tried to remove empty equipment and suggested she not be present when executives visited.
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