‘Turn A/C off and drive them out,’ USPS says to force workers into heat
Internal records show the Postal Service trying to get workers out of air-conditioned offices and urging “digital observance” of “inactivity.”
U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is under fire for heat safety of letter carriers. Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The email went out shortly after a dangerous heat dome in July had smothered upstate New York.
A U.S. Postal Service manager in Buffalo, New York, was angry that letter carriers appeared to be lingering in air-conditioned post offices and told local supervisors to “get this time back.”
“Turn A/C off and drive them out,” the manager ordered in a July 2 email obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. “We need to tighten our 4 walls up.”
Letter carriers in locations across the country say that for a second year they have not received essential safety training on how to stay healthy in the heat, even as their personnel records say otherwise.
On Thursday, 77 House Democrats in a letter urged Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to immediately implement safeguards to protect workers from heat.
“If there is a set of supposed mistakes coming up over and over again across the country that put people at risk of the heat, that becomes a systemic problem,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas.), who spearheaded the letter.
The accusations come as the U.S. is experiencing its hottest summer on record, with rolling heat advisories in place across the country since June. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death of a USPS worker in North Carolina as possibly heat-related.
The Postal Service did not respond to E&E News requests for comment or questions about its approach to employee safety in the heat.
Letter carriers are among the workers most vulnerable to heat illness because they often drive trucks without air conditioning and walk long distances carrying heavy mail bags. Hospitalizations for heat-related illnesses account for 14 percent of the 1,176 on-the-job injuries USPS reported to OSHA between January 2014 and February 2023, according to an E&E News analysis of federal data.
But the Postal Service has long denied that heat harms its carriers, fighting OSHA citations.
An E&E News investigation in December found that the Postal Service was facing thousands of allegations that it had falsified safety records to show erroneously that letter carriers had been trained to recognize and treat symptoms of heat illness when they hadn’t received training. After the article was published, USPS admitted that “in a few instances proper procedures were not followed.”
The heat-training cases from last summer are in arbitration. Hundreds of additional letter carriers say their records were falsified again this year.
Letter carrier Eugene Gates Jr., who didn’t receive the training in 2023, died of heat stroke in June 2023 while delivering mail. Records revealed after his death that Gates had been disciplined for taking rest breaks on his route, prompting outcry from members of Congress.
As record-breaking temperatures scorched the nation this summer, Postal Service managers have been accused of denying air conditioning for letter carriers — and appeared to blame the workers for heat problems.
A letter carrier in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, complained to OSHA in July that employees “are being potentially exposed to heat-related hazards due to refraining from starting up air conditioning units while route preparations are being performed.”
The complaint also said the employee’s work shift was moved to later in the day, when temperatures are higher.
The complaint is “currently open,” OSHA spokesperson Denisha Braxton said.
Scanners monitor ‘unauthorized periods of inactivity’
Postal Service headquarters has long been concerned about unauthorized rest breaks by letter carriers. In a PowerPoint presentation to area supervisors in May, USPS cited 98,521 hours of “inactive delivery time” and instructed managers to use “digital observance” through letter carrier mail scanners to monitor “unauthorized periods of inactivity.”
The presentation, obtained by E&E News, instructs postmasters on how to discipline letter carriers if they take unauthorized breaks. It does not address the importance of taking breaks to rest and cool down during heat waves, which USPS’ heat-protection plan urges. Instead, it urges postmasters to take “extra caution” during summer months or when temperatures exceed 80 degrees and to physically check on inactive carriers during hot periods.
“We want to avoid OSHA retaliation litigation,” the presentation says.
In another message obtained by E&E News, a USPS labor relations specialist in Pennsylvania sent an email to managers in the region with an attachment that says, “Why should we care more about an employee’s safety than the employee does?”
The attached flier seemingly blames letter carriers for certain workplace injuries, such as car accidents, dog attacks and heat.
“If an employee doesn’t properly hydrate, then the union wants to file a grievance against management. If an employee wants to be stupid and/or careless, how is that the fault of management?” the flier says. “We can’t cure stupidity, we can only provide consequences.”
Corey Walton, a letter carrier in Nashville, Tennessee, who hosts a popular podcast for letter carriers, showed E&E News several dozen messages he received from letter carriers saying they were marked as receiving heat training on days they were not scheduled to work.
“You know what happens when it gets really, really hot? We get really, really slow,” Walton said in an interview. “You know why? Because it burdens our bodies.”
Cliff “Eddie” Davidson, who represents southeastern letter carriers with the National Association of Letter Carriers union, said his region filed 13 grievances this summer alleging that heat safety training records were falsified compared to 126 last summer.
“We don’t have as many cases as last year,” Davidson said. “But it is not how it should be.”
Members of Congress sent multiple inquiries to DeJoy, the postmaster general, in the summer of 2023 regarding USPS treatment of letter carriers working in the heat. A July 2023 letter from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee requested that mail delivery shifts start earlier in the day during heat waves.
An August 2023 letter from Casar and other Texas Democrats complained about insufficient water being provided to San Antonio letter carriers.
Many of the same lawmakers signed the letter Thursday to LeJoy saying they have not seen improvement in worker safety.
USPS declines to adopt worker safety standard
OSHA proposed a safety regulation in July that would require employers to provide workers water and rest breaks in cool areas when the combined heat and humidity exceeds 80 degrees. When the heat index reaches 90 degrees, the rule would require 15-minute water and rest breaks every two hours.
Weeks later, Casar’s office held a virtual meeting with the USPS government relations team at which Casar’s staff asked that the agency voluntarily adopt such protections before OSHA finalized its regulation, which could take years.
USPS declined in a letter sent after the meeting, saying the rule could undergo “significant” changes before it is adopted. The Postal Service also cited its own heat-illness prevention program and related training, saying it is “designed specifically to protect the health and safety of our employees.”
“Carriers are consistently reminded to ensure they are fully hydrated, wear appropriate clothing, including hats, get in the shade whenever possible and take enough after and ice with them out on their routes,” the Postal Service wrote.
That didn’t satisfy Casar, who noted the Postal Service’s heat program does not require managers to give workers time to take breaks and cool down.
“Clearly, their own training has been riddled with fraud accusations and inadequate at protecting some of their own letter carriers from getting sick and dying,” Casar said.
One such worker is Kristie Jacob, a mail carrier in Corpus Christi, Texas. In June 2023, she fainted while delivering the mail and had to be treated for a heart arrhythmia brought on by heat exhaustion.
“One minute, I was putting mail in the mailbox, and the next thing that happened — I woke up in an ambulance,” Jacob said. “I didn’t even have time to think, ‘Oh, I’m going to pass out, I better call someone.’ The heat just overtakes you.”
Jacob said she has not received heat safety training this summer or last summer — though her personnel records reviewed by E&E News say otherwise. Jacob said her supervisor had “mocked me” for saying she could not finish her mail route because she was feeling sick from the heat. When Jacobs has felt ill on her route, she said, local residents gave her ice packs and cold drinks.
“The problem is the people sitting in the air conditioning that never stop trying to make us go faster,” Jacob said.
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