EAGAN, Minn. — As part of nationwide actions sponsored by the American Postal Workers Union, some 40 people picketed and rallied outside the Postal Service Distribution Center here July 28. This was a joint protest organized by the APWU locals in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“We are a service,” Dave Cook, president of the APWU’s St. Paul local, told participants and passersby. “We are not designed to run as a business.”
Cook pointed to cutbacks in workers by the Postal Service that slow down delivery of mail, especially in rural areas, including to retirees on fixed income waiting on their pension checks, and to people who are ill waiting on mail prescriptions.
A postal service employee at the protest, who didn’t want his name to be used for fear of retaliation from supervisors, said more and more of their entry-level jobs are now part time, with little or no medical or other benefits. “In some cases new hires can be forced to work 16 hours straight with no breaks, especially if they are on probation, with no union protection. For this reason the turnover is high. You can’t blame them.”