People around the country are complaining of serious mail delays—and the official explanation from the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t sound like the full story. The Postal Service attributes the delays to increased package volume and staff shortages due to coronavirus, but the delays are hitting as the new postmaster general makes changes that postal workers warn are creating problems.
Louis DeJoy, the Republican donor Trump put in charge of the USPS despite his lack of postal experience, has eliminated overtime, which is the last thing you'd think you’d do when facing pandemic-driven staffing shortages. If you cared about getting the mail delivered on time, that is—which DeJoy clearly doesn’t. So, for instance, in Shreveport, Louisiana, where a postal worker recently shared images of stacks of backlogged mail, multiple veterans say their medications from the local VA are late.
In Chicago, where one resident told local news, “It took us three weeks to get our medication through the mail service,” 15 members of Congress and 43 aldermen have sent DeJoy a letter saying, “Recent operational changes, made at your direction, undermined the ability of the USPS to carry out its mission during this critical time. … We look forward to your response on how your office will work to eliminate these delays as quickly as possible.”
In North Carolina, where DeJoy lives, a Greensboro resident told KVTZ, “I’ve had a couple packages that have not shown up yet. It’s been over two weeks now.” A local small business owner explained, “Lots of small businesses rely on certain postage rates that are considerably cheaper. Every commercial business that’s not like a restaurant on this street uses the postal service to mail out product. Every single one,” and that’s essential, because “You can’t afford to send things through other carriers if you’re just a small business sending one or two things at a time.”
Sabotaging the Postal Service is a longtime Republican goal, because it’s a public service that doesn’t primarily benefit wealthy people and that has been a major route to the middle class for generations of Black people. But Trump has really turned that from a long-term, gradual mission to an immediate disaster, because Trump fears vote by mail and is looking to undermine safe and accessible voting during the pandemic. People’s prescriptions and family photos and orders from small businesses are basically collateral damage to Trump’s plan to sabotage November’s elections. But these delays are also an early warning, and a chance to fight back. Congressional Democrats have called DeJoy to testify and have made the delays an issue in coronavirus stimulus negotiations, but they’re going to need to figure out how to play some hardball while Trump also feels the heat from public outrage over delays.