Workers exposed to acid at massive Postal Service facility in Arizona

• USPS employees at an Avondale facility report a new package sorting machine is causing hazardous chemical spills.
• Workers claim the massive sorter is poorly built and understaffed, leading to damaged packages and safety risks.
• A former employee quit after being exposed to muriatic acid twice from packages broken open by the machine.

A massive machine built to process 1 million packages per day was the United States Postal Service’s answer to growing pressure from private shipping competitors.

Employees say the sorting behemoth is putting them at risk.

“As long as that machine is there, it’s going to keep breaking boxes open and exposing workers to chemical spills. It’s just a hazardous, dangerous work environment,” said Jeffrey Holliday, a former USPS employee who quit his job after he was exposed to acid at work.

Workers say the machine is poorly built and understaffed, leading to damaged packages, hazardous chemical spills and a complaint to federal regulators.

Launched last summer, the USPS Matrix East/West Sorter can process 50,000 packages per hour, according to USPS.

The multi-platform machine fills an Avondale warehouse with a series of conveyor belts and scanners that act as a hub for mail passing through metro Phoenix.

The MEWS was designed to reduce hand sorting that employees previously did, the Postal Service said last year.

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