By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
December 15, 2009
It's no doubt that December is the busiest month for the U.S. Postal Service, but for one branch in Connecticut, it's just too busy. Some employees have reportedly resorted to hiding the mail rather than sorting and delivering it.
In an interview with the Waterbury Republican-American, Ray Arcovio, president of the Waterbury postal union local, blames the mail-hiding on managers. He says they have been hiding mail in closets and unused rooms at USPS facilities in Waterbury and Wallingford because they can't keep pace with the high volume of mail.
"They're just pushing it aside for the next day," Arcovio told the newspaper. "We've had issues with them hiding the mail."
Arcovio told the paper that postal service employees have witnessed the mail-hiding but have been reluctant to speak out because of fears of repercussions.
The union leader's public outing of management apparently comes at a time of rising tensions at the Connecticut facility. Four years ago sorting operations were moved from Waterbury to Wallingford, displacing some employees.
Arcovio took his dispute with Postal Service management public earlier this month when he published an open letter in the Republican-American:
"Lately, postal management, locally, has been caught finding 'creative' ways of reducing mail volume which has caused more than one to be reprimanded," the letter states. "Ultimately, however, these 'creative' ways of reducing mail volume only have one affect (sic) -- degradation of service to our customers."
Consumers in all parts of the country have written to ConsumerAffairs.com this month, complaining about various issues at their local post offices.
"An Amazon order was delivered to my Post Office box and returned to sender due to 'wrong address,' but address was correct and AMAZON still has not received a return one month to the day later," Gail, of Newport, R.I., told ConsumerAffairs.com. "Package is spinning around through different POs as I write this."
Brittany, of Pittsburgh, finds it difficult to send a simple first class letter across the country in a timely manner.
"I mailed a money order in the amount of $229.17 on December 2nd 2009 to a company in Las Vegas, Nevada to purchase a product," she told ConsumerAffairs, com last week. "As of today, December 11, they still have not received it. I called company that issued the money order and confirmed that it had not been cashed. I did not send it certified or registered or express mail because I assumed that it would arrive at its intended destination."
