[I am part of a small crew of retired USPS workers in NYC, mostly from the American Postal Workers Union, who are campaigning to bring back postal banking. All of us were on the job during the terrifying postal anthrax attacks of September-October 2001.
This morning we got together a short statement and posted it on our Facebook group, The Bronx Wants Postal Banking. I repost it here because we’d like to see the message get around.]
Today this page is going to shift from its usual focus on the Postal Banking campaign.
Once again an attempt has been made to convert the United States Postal Service, the People's Service, into a weapon of mass destruction. We don't know who is sending these pipe bombs through the mail, how many have been sent, or if any will explode.
We do know a couple of things, though, because our crew of retirees is composed of men and women who worked in the NYC PO during the deadly anthrax attacks of September and October, 2001, which killed 5 people and sickened many more. Some of us were at the huge Morgan mail processing and distribution facility in Manhattan where anthrax spores were found on the machines. We all remember the fear, the uncertainty, the lack of trust for postal management after two of our brother APWU members in Washington DC died just days after being assured that they had not been exposed.
We know that there is one thing that is the same in this new attack. The attention is all on the politicians, public figures and media corporations at whom the bombs are directed. But our fellow postal workers are far more likely to be harmed than these well-guarded folks. Postal workers are in the front line in this terrorist attack.
We are certain that leadership in the APWU and other postal unions are fighting for a more effective response from management than the dithering incompetence we experienced in the anthrax crisis. If the unions issue a call to the public, please pay attention.
And in the meantime, everybody, if you cross paths with any clerks, drivers, letter carriers or other postal workers today, please wish them a safe day, eh?
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