Postal union officials doubt Louis DeJoy will reverse changes that led to mail slowdown: report

Amid nationwide outrage and lawsuits from nearly two dozen states, DeJoy vowed to suspend controversial new changes

Published August 19, 2020 11:18AM (EDT)

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy departs from a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the Capitol on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy departs from a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the Capitol on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on Raw Story

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Faced with nationwide outrage and lawsuits from nearly two dozen states, President Donald Trump's new postmaster general Louis DeJoy announced on Tuesday that he would be suspending several controversial new policy changes at the Postal Service that critics suspect are a deliberate effort to slow down the mail ahead of elections that will rely heavily on mail-in ballots.

But according to CNN, postal union leaders do not take DeJoy at his word that everything is fixed.

"Miriam Bell, general president of a local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union in North Carolina, said seven sorting machines at a Charlotte postal facility have been either separated out, dismantled or entirely removed in recent weeks," reported Curt Devine and Paul Murphy. "Asked if she expects them to return, Bell said, 'We truthfully do not know,' adding, 'it is highly unlikely they will be put back in place.'"

Furthermore, continued the report, "Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan, had been removed from service in recent weeks, and despite DeJoy's announcement, he said he has heard from postal management that the machines are not supposed to be put back to work."

USPS mail sorting machines cost millions of dollars. The agency reportedly had planned to take 15 percent of the sorting machines out of service, although some documents suggest this was planned even before DeJoy's appointment.


By Matthew Chapman

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