Niagara Falls postal workers host rally

Oct. 1—About 30 Western New York postal workers gathered in Niagara Falls on Tuesday afternoon to show their solidarity with nationwide union fights for better service.

The rally was one of 90 planned across the U.S. as the American Postal Workers Union held a day of action to alert the public on the need for better services and more staffing in post office branches.

“We need more staff in a lot of places,” said WNY Area Local 183 President Tiffany Ellsworth, who represents postal workers across Western New York except Buffalo. “Sometimes you do not have enough people at the window, or we have to close some of the smaller post offices in Western New York.”

Among those appearing with the workers were Mayor Robert Restaino, Congressman Tim Kennedy, APWU Industrial Relations Director, Charlie Cash, and members of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

A release the national APWU put out states that mail services have been slower for millions of Americans due to the Postal Service management’s poor implementation of plans to modernize mail facilities and ship much of the mail and packages to distance processing centers. While the service has converted thousands of temporary, non-career positions to career tracks over the past few years, they have not been enough to address turnover problems and short staffing.

The Postal Service had slowed delivery standards as part of cost-savings, with rural areas seeing increased delivery times.

“It’s not just new hires and retention,” stated APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “We need more staff. The public sees the long lines at postal counters, where we handle more packages today than ever before, but while the number of packages handled has dramatically increased, the number of clerks has declined over the past two decades by over 10,000.”

The national APWU contract with the postal service expired on Sept. 20, with talks still ongoing for a new one. Ellsworth said they will still be delivering everyone’s mail.

The rallies are also trying to ease concerns about counting ballots and making sure they all get in on time. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had recently debunked claims made by former President Donald Trump about the service’s reliability.

In 2020, 97.9% of ballots were delivered to election officials within three days, with that number rising to 99% in 2022.

Ellsworth said that future days of action may be planned.