Just a few short pieces of good news (we all need some).
Today I went to a protest to support postal workers outside my neighborhood post office. Only about 50 of us showed up with one professionally made banner, a few dozen home-made signs, and a vuvuzela, but I have never heard such honking of support from passing cars! It was nearly non-stop for two hours!
After the 2010 census, zip code 98118 was rumored to be the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the country, until fact-checkers told us there is no actual way to measure this. Gentrification has probably reduced our diversity a tad since then, but we still had drivers of every color, gender, and age honking enthusiastically to support postal workers and to cancel Dejoy Nojoy. Sedans, SUVs pickup trucks, vans, sports cars, Metro drivers, commercial trucks, cars carrying kayaks, SUVs pulling boats, all blasted, beeped, tooted, or blared their approval. It was indeed heartwarming. Whenever a postal truck went by, we cheered and clapped, and provoked a few proud smiles from the drivers.
In other news, postal workers in Tacoma and Wenatchee, two of the five distribution centers in Washington, both of which along with Yakima were slated for closure (leaving only Seattle and Spokane) hooked up their sorters which apparently can process 30,000-50,000 letters per hour, in defiance of orders from USPS director of maintenance Kevin Couch (wonder if he replaced one of the 23 people Dejoy fired?), according to public radio station KUOW. In Tacoma, 8 of 18 mail sorting machines had been disconnected and pushed into a corner. Five of them have now been restored, and modules of two others have been used to augment the capacity of these five, which can be shortened or lengthened. In Wenatchee, separated from the sea of blue in the Seattle-Tacoma urban corridor of western Washington by the Cascade Mountains, the only sorting machine has also been re-connected.
Meanwhile, in the state’s largest mail-processing plant, in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila, nine machines have been disconnected and at least three of these have been completely dismantled. There are no current plans to re-connect them. The Postal Service apparently was planning to remove 969 sorting and cancelling machines nationwide even before Dejoy came on board, raising the question of who (Mnuchin? the postal board?) is behind this downsizing. Even if Dejoy were correct that ”they are not needed”, an assessment that seems to be disputed by many postal workers, it is hard to understand how dismantling expensive machinery that might be needed again saves money.
There is a fairly awesome video of how mail is sorted at distribution centers here. The urgent musical score might need to be revised to adagio under Dejoy.
Although the news is a few days old, I haven’t notice a diary here discussing the suit brought by Washington AG Bob Ferguson on Tuesday, who has a long history of suing the Trump administration starting with the Muslim travel ban. The 120 page lawsuit, filed along with 13 other states, alleges the administrative procedures to implement changes at the postal service have not been carried out in a legal fashion. Ferguson has previously used the Administrative Procedures Act to challenge the Trump administration, for example over DACA. The NAACP also filed suit on Thursday, alleging that the changes at the postal service constitute a “blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters of color”. Finally on Friday Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro also filed suit, alleging the changes failed to go through the Postal Regulatory Commission as required by law and disproportionately disenfranchises older voters. The suit was joined by California, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina and the District of Columbia.
Congress seems to be doing what it can do, but it never hurts to write them again, especially the Senate, where McConnell says he has no intention of taking up a legal remedy to service changes or providing funding.
Finally, credit and apologies to a Kossack whose diary two days ago I can’t find right now for posting emails for the USPS postal board. I think the board should hear from us.
Robert Duncan: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com
John Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com
Ron Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com
Roman Martinez: roman@rmiv.com
Donald Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com
Wiliam Zollers: directoraccessmailbox@cigna.com pic.twitter.com/aIdzgUkSD0
— Data Bear, PhD 🐻🏳️🌈 | #TeamJoe | BLM (@dataandpolitics) August 15, 2020
