SAN ANTONIO — As a historic summer heat wave continues to stifle Texas, a bipartisan cohort of San Antonio-area congressmen have penned a letter urging the U.S. Postal Service to better safeguard postal carriers.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Greg Casar, Joaquin Castro and Henry Cuellar, along with Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, signed the Wednesday letter addressed to federal and local postmasters general, calling on them to create a plan that permits letter carriers to take breaks from the hot weather; have access to cold water without having to buy it themselves; and avoid penalties in the event they have to visit a store or return to a USPS station to pick up water.
"We ask that you immediately prioritize a solution for letter carriers," the letter states.
The letter comes late in a summer season when triple-digit highs, exacerbated by a lack of rain and suffocating humidity, have been the norm in the region. San Antonio just experienced its second-hottest July on record, and a slew of daily heat records have been broken.
The four Lone Star State lawmakers lead off the letter sharing concerns from constituents that USPS "recently stopped providing water bottles" to its employees, who already don't have access to AC in their trucks, while emphasizing the intensity of the recent heat. It also alleges that USPS letter carriers could be disciplined for taking breaks from their route on hot days.
One San Antonio letter carrier who spoke on the condition of anonymity said USPS managers stopped providing bottled water "when we letter carriers needed it the most."
“I have worked for the Post Office for 20 years, and USPS has been providing bottled water during the summer months. On July 14, 2023, management were told to stop ordering bottled water, Gatorade, and canteens,” said Homer Hernandez, political director of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Alamo Branch 421. “We, the letter carriers, work outside for about eight to 10 hours in the extreme heat. "
>Read the full letter below:
Casar told KENS 5 he was skeptical that USPS had stopped providing bottled water completely but he said that changed when he contacted USPS. The congressman said he had to contact USPS three times to get an answer about the water.
"They essentially said, 'Now there is working water fountains at the post office, so we don't need those water bottles anymore,'" Casar said. "But what we heard from every single letter carrier that we asked was that they aren't allowed to go back to the post office and just refill. Going off-route to a gas station pulls money out of their pocket, but sometimes they can get in trouble for that too."
Louise Jordan, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 421, told KENS 5 the water bottles were actually only provided once COVID-19 became an issue because water fountains may not be safe.
Jordan said it when the water fountains came back that the water bottles started to disappear.
"Then they appreciated the cost that water bottles was costing them and they said, 'We have water fountains, that meets OSHA requirements, so we aren't going to provide water anymore,'" Jordan said. "But we have a thing called past-practice, where if management has been doing something for a long time then the carriers can expect they continue to do that."
Jordan said it took a while for USPS management to decide on changes after President Joe Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be over last year. The water bottles then started disappearing over the summer.
"The union reps at the stations asked about it and they were told, 'I ordered and it and they disallowed it. I wasn't allowed to order it anymore because there's a water fountain,'" Jordan said.
In Dallas, a woman started pushing for change after her husband, a 66-year-old letter carrier with USPS, died during his route on a day when the heat index surpassed 110 degrees.
"The public servants who deliver our mail should be safe on the job without facing retaliation or continuing to spend more and more out of their own pocket," the congressmens' letter states. "They deserve the resources that they need to do their job safely."
A local USPS spokesperson pushed back against some of the letter's claims in a lengthy statement providing to KENS 5, calling employee safety a top priority and saying letter carriers "are reminded to ensure they're hydrated, wear appropriate clothing, including hats, get in the shade whenever possible, and to take sufficient amounts of water and ice with them out on their routes."
The USPS statement didn't specifically address the claim that San Antonio letter carriers are penalized if they leave their route to get water. The agency did say, however, that its employees receive training on recognizing the signs of heat illness, saying its one element of a Heat Illness Prevention Program that's already in place.
The agency added that 34% of its postal vehicles currently in use are equipped with AC, saying the others were purchased previously – "through the early-1990s" – and weren't equipped with AC.
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