SAN ANTONIO — Earlier this month four congressmen wrote letters to the U.S. Postmaster General after local stations stopped providing bottle water for mail carriers. The chain reaction from that letter has postal workers saying enough is enough.
"When it's 100 degrees outside it's 114 degrees in that little tin vehicle," said Louise Jordan, President, National Letter Carriers Association Branch 421.
On Sunday morning workers held a rally at the main post office on Perrin Beitel Road. Those who attended spoke out against working condition, at the heart of the issue is providing mail carriers bottled waters.
Letter carrier Homer Hernandez says conditions for postal workers out delivering mail in the heat are terrible. Hernandez says only 3 stations out of 23 in San Antonio are getting bottled waters. During the height of COVID carriers were being provided bottle water but during this summers heat wave they suddenly disappeared.
Postal workers says to get this point, it's taken years of fighting and they want safe and humane conditions to work in, and they hope this protest will bring awareness.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg showed up at the rally to show his support for the postal workers.
"You know access to simple things like water bottles in their trucks on these 10 hour shifts are not part of the cost cutting measures. We need to make sure that the Postmaster General hears the call of President Biden that workers safety is priority number one job," said Mayor Nirenberg.
Homer Hernandez says he hopes this morning rally sends a message to Postmaster Robert Carr.
"Do your job, or retire," said Hernandez.
We have reached out to USPS multiple times for comment about the bottle water policy, but a spokesperson responded by saying they would provide a written response to Congressional members within a reasonable timeframe. We last checked a couple of days ago with Congressmen who are working on this issue and they had not heard from USPS.