WASHINGTON — U.S. Postal Service worker Mallory Shepard believes she needs a lifeline.
“We have so little staff all the time. She said that she is currently performing the same work as three people. “So much more has been placed on each person in terms of the workload.”
Shepard and Postal Service are hopeful that bipartisan legislation will bring them help. Tuesday’s Senate vote approved a bill that would allow the Postal Service to reduce its expenses by nearly $50 billion over the next decade. It also allows it to modernize the service system and improve service all across the country.
Last month, the House approved the legislation with bipartisan support. It is expected that President Joe Biden will sign it into law.
Shepard is a union shop steward and has been working as a mail clerk in Waverly for nearly a decade. She said that she would like to see savings to allow the agency to hire more staff to improve customer service.
The Postal Service was widely criticised for its long delivery delays over the past two years due to increased e-commerce related to pandemics, Covid’s spread among postal workers, and an increase in packages.
In a 2020 report, the Postal Service Office for Inspector General stated that the average vehicle in its fleet is almost three decades old and that maintenance costs are high to maintain it.
In addition, the Postal Service had a net loss of $
Marshall stated that the town she lived in had a “postoffice, a bar, and that was it” so, aside from being a necessity the post office gave residents the chance to socialize, especially during pandemic.
The Postal Service Reform Act would improve the Postal Service’s finances by eliminating the requirement that it pre-fund employee health benefits and shifting to a “pay as-you-go” method. According to the bill, the new legislation would require employees to enroll Medicare. This would lower the cost of health insurance premiums.
Dimondstein stated that “I believe across the board this news is good news.” It doesn’t rely on taxpayer money because it is an entity that doesn’t run on it. It is a non-profit organization that serves the people on a broken-even basis. The bill will help to provide better services for the citizens of the country.
The legislation will create an online dashboard that customers can use to track delivery times. This is a service UPS and FedEx offer, but it would save money. Marshall works at New Market, Iowa’s post office. She doesn’t have an automated system and does everything manually.
Shepard, Iowa’s shop steward, stated that sometimes we get a bad reputation. We all care deeply about each customer and everyone really, really tries to do their best every day.
