OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Tuesday marked a nationwide day of action to spread awareness about what the American Postal Workers Union calls ‘substandard performance.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Postal workers and community members met in front of the downtown post office off pacific street with signs, chanting for a better contract, a return to normalcy in delivery but also the staffing in the facilities. Philip Thomas, president of the Omaha area Local 11 Postal Workers Union says a plan proposed by the postal service would consolidate smaller facilities in rural areas into larger post offices, raising concerns about efficient delivery.
"The challenge with it isn't necessarily wholly a bad idea because packaging is now more present than actual letter mail, but what happens is when you have that important mail it makes no sense to deliver mail all the way to Omaha when you could literally just have someone sort it in that town and hand it to the carrier and get it there the very next day," Thomas said.
Philip says the Board of Governors, which governs the postal service, used to meet 4 times a year and allow for public comment. He says that has since changed to once a year. He says the union would like that to go back to what it was to allow for more public input.
But it's important to note, while the November election is right around the corner, Philip says while there are issue within the postal service, collecting and delivering ballots is not one of them.
