The electrical components in two mail sorting machines at a downtown Grand Rapids U.S. Postal Service office were removed on Tuesday, a union representative confirmed Wednesday. Tuesday was the same day U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the practice would stop until after the November election.
Components in a third machine were in the process of being removed when the order was issued.
Amy Puhalski, president of American Postal Workers Union Local 281, said while the machines are not being further taken apart, they are unusable without the electrical components, and there have been no directives to reinstall them.
“They’ve already taken two out yesterday, they were working on the third one,” Puhalski told The Sentinel. “And then, when (DeJoy) put the directive out, they are no longer doing that. The machine, there’s no electrical to it anymore, it’s just sitting there. But they’re not continuing on with pulling apart the actual piece of equipment.”
The removal of the machines would delay mail processing time, she added.
Puhalski said the downtown Grand Rapids post office only processes letters. On Wednesday, videos and photos of machines in the parking lot of another post office in Grand Rapids circulated. Puhalski said those machines are used for processing packages, not letters.
Attorneys General from 20 states, including Michigan’s Dana Nessel, had filed a federal lawsuit against DeJoy over the changes to the post office, prompting DeJoy to say Tuesday that changes would wait until after the election. The changes, which included the removal of mail-sorting machines and mail dropboxes, were being made due to the USPS’s financial challenges, DeJoy said.
President Donald Trump had criticized USPS in recent weeks, particularly as states moved to make absentee voting, or voting by mail, more accessible during the coronavirus pandemic. DeJoy said the changes to USPS had nothing to do with Trump’s criticism.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, also launched an investigation into the postal service backlog earlier in August. Peters called the removal of the Grand Rapids machine components “alarming” on Twitter, saying “DeJor owes the people of Grand Rapids and Michiganders answers.”
Congressional candidate Hillary Scholten, a Grand Rapids Democrat, issued a statement calling the reported dismantling “reprehensible.”
“I am alarmed by reports that mail sorting machines are being dismantled as we speak at the Grand Rapids USPS, at the order of Postmaster General DeJoy, despite his announcement yesterday that these actions would be suspended,” Scholten said. “Sabotaging the USPS jeopardizes the delivery of crucial services, paychecks, and medicines, especially to seniors and rural Michiganders and endangers our ability to safely cast votes in this upcoming election.
“The USPS is an essential institution, and this Administration’s efforts to undermine it are reprehensible and require urgent action. This shouldn’t be political and everyone who believes the USPS is a critical service should join me in condemning DeJoy’s actions and seeking answers.”