‘A lot of you may not be getting mail today’: Post office worker speaks out after getting $10K pay cut, witnessing co-workers walk out
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‘A lot of you may not be getting mail today’: Post office worker speaks out after getting $10K pay cut, witnessing co-workers walk out
Recently, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been rolling out its Rural Route Evaluation Compensation System (RRECS).
The system came about after a disagreement between the USPS and rural post office workers about how much they should be paid for mail volume. RRECS was the resolution developed by the two parties and an arbitrator, with much of the language surrounding its rollout focused on its intent to “modernize” the postal system.
In practice, however, it has frequently meant less pay for rural USPS employees. One user on Reddit claimed that their pay went from “$65,000 to $47,000.” Others have claimed substantial increases in the amount of work needed accompanied by a salary loss of almost $8,000.
Now, a postal worker and user on TikTok is sounding the alarm about the new payment system, saying that many co-workers have walked off their jobs.
“We just got told … a lot of us are losing money with our new pay system,” TikTok user Kellman (@kellman9) explains in a video that's amassed nearly 4 million views. “I’m losing about $12,000 per year, guaranteed.”
“A lot of you may not be getting mail today,” Kellman continues. “We’ve had some people walk out, and other people lost way more than I did.”
“And I have to work an extra day now per pay period,” he adds. “Instead of 10 days, I have to work 11…Welcome to the post office.”
“95% of us at my office just got a big paycut. This is nationwide,” he states in the caption.
Kellman notes in subsequent follow-up videos that he is not losing as much as he initially thought (he is actually losing $10,250, which he notes is “still a lot”) while working more days and losing out on the potential for overtime.
For context, over the past few years, the United States Post Office has faced criticism from the right for its perceived lack of profitability.
However, Columbia University professor Richard R. John cites the historical record to note in an Op-Ed for the Washington Post that “the Postal Service was a public service, whose rationale was civic rather than commercial. As a New York journalist put it in 1854: The Postal Service’s ‘benefit to mankind’ far outweighed the ‘pecuniary consideration’ of any financial shortfall.”
“In 1958, a federal law made this even clearer: The Postal Service was ‘clearly not a business enterprise conducted for profit,’” the article reads.
Despite this, it appears the U.S. government has gone through great pains to strip funds from the service. For example, in 2015, Congress rolled back stamp price increases. It also imposed significant burdens on the service, such as requiring it to pre-fund its healthcare obligations (something “no other company has to do,” per Barron’s).
For many users in comments, this change in payment represents a further dismantling of USPS—in particular, services for rural customers for whom mail delivery is notoriously costlier for USPS.
“I worked at the post office in Jacksonville and the supervisors harassed employees and we had to constantly fight for our jobs through our Union. Smh,” wrote one user.
“Thats crazy,” added another. “Mail carrier is one of the hardest jobs out there and so many people depend on them…”
“45k to 43[k],” shared an additional TikToker and postal worker. “It’s devastating!”
In response, Kellman wished the user good luck and encouraged them to “go for city side.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Kellman via Instagram direct message and the USPS via email.
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‘A lot of you may not be getting mail today’: Post office worker speaks out after getting $10K pay cut, witnessing co-workers walk out
It isn't called "going postal" for nothing.
The problem with any wage discussion in any industry, is that the US Congresscritters deliberately failed to increase the US Minimum Wage for the last 30 years worth of 6-8% annual inflation (shadowstats.com and others). In a February 2013 Moyers & Co. interview with author Henry Giroux, Bill Moyers cited a UNCTAD study that said the US Minimum wage should be $21/hour. I've never made that with a college degree and two large corp careers. And that was 10 years ago. So what would it be now if UNCTAD re-did the study? $26/hour? The joke we use now is that the US Minimum Wage is 1/3rd of what it takes to live a minimum life.
So, those big sounding numbers to everyone in the $40,000 and down income bracket... actually equates to what it takes to live a minimum life... and everyone across the board is getting shorted big time. To do any real comparison, we would need to know how much of that $65K goes to healthcare deductions, taxes, etc. [Side note: I haven't purchased health insurance since 2006. I don't use that kind of toxic-internal allopathic medicine. My car insurance is really good if I get in an accident... Any other issues - I have to fix myself or keep them from starting in the first place. I have to own my health.]
Have you ever heard that mean old lady sitting in that dank looking kitchen a few years back on Youtube describe the real reason for Unions? (Before she got 100% search engine suppressed) It's deterrence. Non-union businesses with unionized businesses in their vicinity had to match, or come close, to the wages and benefits of the unionized shops - lest they become unionized themselves or be unable to find workers.
The USPS was never supposed to be a money making or even self sustaining organization. It's relationship to us is intimate... and now it has been weaponized against us in a bunch of ways. Refusal to deliver packages to residential destinations - unless there is existing mail delivery at that location, weird blue highway house number signs at the curb to make the home identifiable at night, moving data sales, and more... and what the heck did the USPS need with 2 million rounds of ammo back in 2015?
In the end, the real tragedy was the federal government deliberately doing nothing to stop organized crime from polluting unions across the country... The unions were powerful, they made wages and benefits better for everyone, and they had to be stopped. So the US Congress, bought off local officials, and blackmailed FBI senior level managers made it happen.
I never got an increase for 12 years with my last small business employer... I asked for one after 4 years and they threatened to cut my pay (the evil PayChex payroll processor in St. Pete, FL was going to do an analysis...). I only stayed for the part time hours... Well, karma bites. They all got the injection.
Just got 3 pieces of junk mail five minutes ago. They can shut the postal service down entirely for all I care. Someone would figure out a better way to do it