Workers at the United States Postal Service’ Network Distribution Center Springfield, Massachusetts are speaking out against injuries, contract violations, safety issues and inaction in the face of this by union officials.
Conditions at USPS have deteriorated for many years, but the issue has reached a breaking point since the start of the “Delivering for America” restructuring program begun in 2021. This bipartisan program aims to restructure the post office along Amazon lines, setting the stage for potential privatization. The current financial crisis at USPS—which may run out of money by next year—is being used to further squeeze the workforce. Management has already suspended payments into postal workers’ pension plan.
Last month, a group of workers founded a rank-and-file committee at the facility to expose these conditions and to “unite postal workers worldwide to build collective power,” according to its founding statement. The committee is “independent of union apparatus, political parties and management,” it continues. “It is democratic, transparent and accountable to the shop floor.”
The committee is affiliated with the national USPS Worker Rank-and-File Committee, which is conducting an independent investigation into workplace safety. That inquiry was launched last November, after the deaths of postal workers Nick Acker in Michigan and Russell Scruggs, Jr in Georgia.
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