Letter to the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service - Durbin, Duckworth, Quigley, Casten, Schakowsky Call On USPS Board Of Governors To Protect Postal Workers After Inaction From Postmaster General Dejoy

Letter

Dear Members of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service:

We write to express concern with the inaction in response to the uptick in violence and crime committed against letter carriers in Chicago and around the country. Since 2018, reports of mail carrier robberies have more than tripled from 80 robberies in 2018 to more than 260 in 2021. Criminals frequently target carriers for their master keys, often reselling these keys to other criminals for thousands of dollars. We call upon the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service (the Board) to take the necessary steps to ensure postal workers across the nation can carry out their jobs in peace.

This is not our first time raising this concern. In July, we sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to express these same concerns. Responding to our letter, the Postal Inspection Service pointed to the creation of a special taskforce to address crimes against postal employees. Unfortunately, this approach is not working. Postal employees in Chicago continue to have to perform their jobs while fearing for their lives. We request that the Board hold the United States Postal Service's leadership accountable. The continued shortcomings of postal leadership have dire consequences for our constituents. Just this week, an article from the Chicago Sun-Times showed that criminals are using these master keys to access cluster mailboxes, stealing checks and other valuable items leaving retirees and others with empty checking accounts for months while the bank processes the theft.

We have been here before. Following a similar increase in carrier robberies and assaults in 2011, the Postal Service launched an aggressive outreach campaign to notify all letter carriers and station-based employees of the appropriate steps and precautions to take when a crime had been committed in their vicinity. Only recently has the Postal Service stopped this important program that had helped protect the safety of its workforce. In response to our July letter, the Postal Inspection Service informed us that they eliminated these alerts since they reportedly caused distress and confusion among postal employees. We also were informed that a process exists to send alerts via carrier scanner devices, but we have heard conflicting reports about their functionality for this purpose.

The inadequate response from the Postal Service and its leadership has caused us to lose confidence in the management of a vital public service. Our offices have repeatedly heard from labor groups that the absence of these alerts is causing serious distress among letter carriers, many of whom have had to start their routes later in the day, forcing them to be out late at night to complete their rounds. Despite the efforts outlined by the Postal Inspection Service, crimes against letter carriers continue to grow while Postal Service management continues to ignore the safety concerns of its workforce and labor groups. We urge the Board to exercise its oversight authority to restore confidence in the leadership of the Postal Service and address the health and safety concerns of employees.

Sincerely,