Letter Carriers In Maine Say Leadership of USPS ‘Willfully Delaying’ Mail, Sabotaging Postal Service

Letter Carriers in Portland, Maine have filed a formal complaint against their Postmaster James Thornton, to the Post Office Inspector General, accusing him of delaying first class mail in order to, fast track Amazon packages. A Journalist said of the situation, “We’re watching the deliberate destruction of the Post Office unfolding in front of us.” The American Postal Workers Union said, “Without consultation or input from any of the postal unions, postal customers, or mailing community, [DeJoy] has launched a series of actions that will undermine the Postal Service and are an insult to every postal worker.”

NEW: Trump’s postal service is piloting a new program that will take already-delayed first-class mail and delay it further, by ordering carriers to no longer sort and box newly arrived mail in the morning and then deliver it. Instead, they must wait till the end of the day. pic.twitter.com/AEJYgBP1vJ

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) July 22, 2020

The Portland Press Herald broke the story with a report on Tuesday, just weeks after Louis DeJoy ascended to the position of U.S. Postmaster General and immediately began “major operational changes” throughout the postal service. Many saw the changes as creating a hurdle for completing package deliveries and causing the post office to falter behind private entities. Dejoy was a big-money donor to President Trump before he was appointed to his current position by the Board of Governors which is controlled by Trump appointees.

The complaint was sphere-headed by a 16-year veteran of the post office, Mark Seitz, on July 13. Seitz says he is confident that Thornton was ordered by the USPS leadership to slow the delivery of certain packages. He said, “Thornton is willfully delaying thousands of first-class and priority parcels so that fourth-class Amazon parcels can go out for delivery instead.” You can read a summary of the complaint letter here.