Union President says delayed mail is skyrocketing in Southwest Florida

Union President says delayed mail is skyrocketing in Southwest Florida

"Mail throughout southwestFlorida, from Punta Gorda allthe way down to Marco Island, isbeing delayed."MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN SOUTHWESTFLORIDA AREN’T GETTING THEIRMAIL ON TIME.THAT’S ACCORDING TO THEPRESIDENT OF THE POSTAL WORKERSUNION IN FORT MYERS.HE SAYS CHANGES AND REGULATIONSMADE IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS HAVECAUSED LATE MAIL TO SKYROCKET.FOX 4 REPORTER ROB MANCH SPOKEWITH HIM AND HAS THE DETAILS FORUS FROM CAPE CORAL TONIGHT.INTRO:I actually reached out to unionPresident Sam Wood when a pieof mail I was expecting didn’come on time.So he looked at what are knownas the daily mail count reports,which show how much mail wasleft at facilities like thisone, instead of being deliveredon timeAnd he says, what he saw shockedhim.PKG:Sam Wood, Postal Workers UnionPresident: "I’ve never seenanything like this, ever, sinceI’ve been working for the postoffice over 29 years."(7s)Wood says the data shows, sincethe beginning of this year,delays have increasedexponentially for mail gettingto customers all acrosssouthwest Florida.Sam Wood, Postal Workers UnionPresident: "Back in April, therewas a little over 150,000 piecesof delayed mail for that month.It went up to 400,000 pieces ofdelayed mail in May, and then inJune, it went up to 700,000pieces of delayed mail.

And thenJuly, which I was very shocked,it went to 5.7 million."(21s)That’s an increase of more than3,000 percent.And Wood says, it has to do withchanges that were made in justthe last few months.Sam Wood, Postal Workers UnionPresident: "At the Fort MyersPNDC, there’s been 5 machinesthat have been taken out, andthose got taken out starting inJune."(8s)Wood even provided me with apicture of one of those machinesbeing put in a dumpster.According to an email Wood sayshe received from the Fort Myersplant manager, the machines werequote "tarped" because of adecline in letter volume.Wood says, there’s also been achange in how much mail workersare allowed to process.Sam Wood, Postal Workers UnionPresident: "Everything they gotin they would process and getthat mail out on a daily basis.Now they’re being told thatthey’re to run a certain amountof pieces of mail.

Whatever’sleft over is delayed."(13On Tuesday, Postmaster GeneralLouis DeJoy put out thisstatement, saying in part quote"There are some longstandingoperational initiatives, effortsthat predate my arrival at thepostal service, that have beenraised as areas of concern Toavoid even the appearance of animpact on election mail, I amsuspending these initiativeuntil after the election."But Wood says, that doesn’t fixthe problem.Sam Wood, Postal Workers UnionPresident: "It’s great that thenew Postmaster General hasstopped those changes untilelection time, but my questionis, what happens after electiontime?"(9s)TAG:I did reach out to USPS for acomment about the situation herein southwest Florida, but I didnot receive a response.Meanwhile, the Associated Pressreported this afternoon thatDeJoy told House Speaker NancyPelosi he has no plans toreverse any of the changes hehas already made to the p