Postal workers provide important services

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

With Wednesday being National Postal Worker Day, the Van Wert independent sat down with three local U.S. Postal Service employees to talk about the rewards and challenges of being a postal worker.

National Postal Worker Day, established in the Seattle, Washington, area in 1997, recognizes postal workers nationally, and allows the public to thank the many men and women who work consistently and diligently to deliver the mail.

Mail carriers work in some of the harshest weather conditions, including walking a route that averages between 4 and 8 miles a day carrying a full load of letters and packages.

Dale Burden, the longest serving of the three with 25 years, said he was looking for a job with paid benefits — something his previous jobs did not have — when he applied for a job back in the 1990s.

Chris Mills, who said he has been a postal worker five or six years, is a mail carrier who also is a substitute supervisor, said he was hired after a friend told him about the job and helped him apply.

Alex Cunningham, the newest employee of the three after being hired in 2017, said he was looking for an outdoor job where he could have independence and get exercise — criteria that have been more than satisfied through being a mail carrier.

While all three noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has created new work challenges for them, all seemed to take those challenges in stride as just another issue to overcome.

Cunningham said one of the hardest things for him is the inability to hand mail to his postal customers — something he enjoys — because of the need to social distance. Burden, who now works in maintenance, said more cleaning is needed of the post office facilities on East Main Street, while fewer and fewer customers who use the post office are now wearing masks.

“When this began, about 95 percent of people were wearing masks, now it’s down to a little over 50 percent and falling,” he said. As someone who interacts with the public on a daily basis, Burden said it is unfortunate that wearing a mask has gotten so politicized. “The virus doesn’t care who you voted for.”

Both Cunningham and Mills said the old challenges for postal carriers still remain: vicious dogs, nasty weather, and houses that are a safety hazard.

Surprisingly, despite the rhetoric coming from Washington, D.C., the Postal Service continues to provide a vital service for businesses and private customers alike.

In fact, the pandemic has increased the workload for postal workers. Since the shutdown forced more small businesses to have an online presence, and the ability to order online, more people are now doing so, especially those more at risk for COVID-19 — the elderly and those with medical challenges — because of the need to isolate.

While the situation has also increased business for private carriers, such as FedEx and UPS, it has also increased the number of packages the postal service handles.

“Our package load is much higher than it was before,” Mills noted, while Burden said he estimates Post Office daily package numbers are now similar to what used to be delivered during the Christmas holiday season a few years ago.

That has required some carriers to return to the post office a second time during the day to get packages for delivery.

Burden added that, while the Postal Service is sometimes criticized for not turning a profit, it has always been a not-for-profit service that does best when given a free hand — something Congress is not always willing to do. 

Mills agreed, noting that, while he isn’t very political, in his mind the current administration seems bent on turning the Postal Service into a small business — a role it wasn’t meant to fill.

“It’s all about money,” he said of the current situation, while all three said the current situation has made them a little more anxious about the future.

All three, however, still feel the Postal Service, with all its issues, provides a very important service to its customers.

“Very few businesses could operate without the Post Office,” Burden said, although he admits that business usage has changed over the years, with first class mail seeing declines during that time.

Both Cunningham and Mills said the consolidation of facilities the past few years has also created new challenges for postal workers, especially for the new mail carrier assistants, who are continually having to learn new routes because they’re often shunted from route to route — and community to community — within an area.

Mills and Cunningham said they feel new Van Wert Postmaster Jessica Chavarria is working hard to improve workplace safety locally, noting she has been implementing the Postal Service’s new PAWS program, which places a dog paw sticker on a mailbox of a residence where a dog is nearby. They also praise her for doing small things on a regular basis to show appreciation for postal workers’ efforts.

The old unofficial Postal Service slogan — “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” — still has relevance in today’s 24/7 Postal Service operation, along with a new mantra for social distancing.

However, like many businesses and organizations, it’s the workers a person sees day to day, from the clerk who sells stamps at the counter to the carrier that delivers mail to a person’s doorstep, that gives most people their glimpse into what the Postal Service is all about.