By David Fortier

The head of the union representing Bristol postal workers confirmed that mail processing equipment had been removed from post offices in Wallingford and that there were no plans to return the machines.

The head of the union representing Hartford postal workers, Hartford is where Bristol mail is processed, said that eight machines have been targeted for removal.

In Wallingford, two machines that process up to 36,000 pieces of mail an hour with 99 percent accuracy had been removed, said Joan Levy, president of the American Postal Workers Union — 237 Greater Connecticut Area Local, in a phone conversation Wednesday.

In Hartford, four of the processing machines have been removed, two are scheduled to be removed and two have been tarped, or taken offline, said Jan White, president of the American Postal Workers Union — 147 Hartford Area Local, in a separate phone conversation also on Wednesday.

Without the machines, mail would have to be sorted by hand, Levy said posing another problem, that of staffing.

The resources at many post offices are already being stretched, as a result of the pandemic, where some, she said some, but not many workers have contracted the COVID-19 virus, leading not only to their being out, but also their co-workers, sometimes three or four, being quarantined.

The absence of older employees or those with people in their households who are immuno-compromised has added to staffing issues.

She added these issues coupled with the tendency not to replace workers who leave the employ of the post offices, either through retirement or for other reasons, makes delivering the mail even more challenging.

Add to these, the prospect of mail-in ballots on a scale unheard of in Connecticut and across the nation (something Levy said she prefers, especially in these times of COVID-19).

Through it all, she said, the post office is extremely good at delivering the mail, the goal being to get every piece of mail in and out the door every day.

However, recent directives from the newly appointed U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy have jeopardized this efficiency, she said, first by attempting to remove machines and second by cutting overtime.

Levy said she sees these initiatives as an intentional effort to slow the mail.

Levy did acknowledge that DeJoy in testimony before Congress earlier this week said that he would hold off any other changes until after the election and roll back the prohibition on overtime. Whether processing machines that had been removed from some post offices would be returned was still an issue.

Just before taking the call from TBE, Levy said she just finished drafting an email to U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, relaying to them the information about the machines having been removed and a new directive informing post offices that the machines would not be returned.

Bristol is not a mail processing site. As Levy explained, mail goes from the blue collection boxes on the street to a processing site, and from the processing site back to Bristol and then to individuals’ mailboxes.

Without the machines, Levy said, more mail will have to be hand sorted, which is possible if post offices were properly staffed.

She said the postal workers would get the job done, as they have through winter storms, hurricanes and other unforeseen events.

White, whose union represents Hartford area postal workers, agreed with Levy in that the post office is entirely capable of handling mail in a timely manner, especially for the upcoming election.

She said that people should be given a choice about whether to mail in their ballots or to stand in line. (She prefers to mail-in her ballot, too.)

Taking a longer view of the decision making, White said that the timing of these changes comes during the summer when post office activity slows, implying that things were not going to pick up, but they do—consider the holidays, annual IRS traffic and now the upcoming election.

Aside from that, she referred to the lifeline that the mail is for those receiving medicine and government checks.

Levy and White spoke as employees of their respective unions. Employees of the post office are not allowed to speak directly to the media.

TBE perspective—consider this:

The postmaster general, aside from having no experience with the operations of the post office, has business interests that are in direct competition with the post office.

The post office carries debt on its books which other entities are not required to do, making it look like it is in worst condition than it is financially.

The creator and founder of the post office, Benjamin Franklin, stated from the beginning that the post office was intended to play a significant role in unifying the country and from its inception, because of its important role, would be subsidized. In other words, the post office was never supposed to be a profit-center nor is it supposed to support itself.