KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Employees of the United States Postal Service in Kansas City and throughout the country held rallies Tuesday to raise awareness about short staffing within the agency.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the agency is prepared for a “heroic” effort to deliver mail-in ballots ahead of the November presidential election.
The rallying postal employees want that same dedication during the other 11 months of the year.
Toni Robinson is president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 67 in Kansas City.
She said mismanagement has led to a staffing shortage in the Kansas City area.
Robinson also said the agency needs to improve training for both new hires and managers.
She said these issues are partly to blame for mail delays around the region, which have led congressional leaders to send letters to USPS and launch audits on the topic.
"We want to provide a service to the customers out here and we want to do it in a timely fashion," Robinson said. "We cannot do it without the proper staffing."
The delivery of mail-in ballots came into question last month when Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab sent a letter to DeJoy showing election offices were unable to tabulate roughly 1,000 mail-in ballots in the August primary because of late deliveries or ballots arriving without postmarks.
Robinson said her 1,200 union members are prepared to make sure mail-in ballots arrive on time in the November election, but they’ll need more help long-term in the Kansas City area.
“We’re ready to handle it; we did it before," Robinson said. "We can move the mail. We know how to move the mail. We just need more staffing to assist moving that mail, but we’re gonna get the mail out. We’re going to work the 12 hours or whatever is decided to get that mail out, but we’re going to get that mail out."
KSHB 41 News received this statement from a USPS spokesperson:
Through our Delivering for America investments, we have built capacity into our processing, logistics, and delivery infrastructure to meet customers' evolving mail and package needs. We are executing on strategies to pull together the people, technology, transportation, equipment, and facilities into a well-integrated and streamlined mail and package network.
We have worked hard in past 3 years to stabilize our workforce. We have converted more than 191,000 pre-career employees to career status since January 2021.
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KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics on both sides of the state line. If you have a story idea to share, you can send Charlie an email at charlie.keegan@kshb.com.
