Postal service asks for temporary waiver from Biden vaccine requirement

[former9thward]

Source: Washington Post

The U.S. Postal Service has asked federal labor officials for a temporary waiver from President Biden’s coronavirus employer vaccine mandate, setting up a showdown on pandemic safety measures between the president and one of the government’s largest agencies.

In a letter dated Jan. 4 to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Deputy Postmaster General Douglas A. Tulino wrote that requiring workers be vaccinated against covid-19 or present weekly negative tests would hurt the agency’s ability to deliver the mail and strain the nation’s supply chains.

A vaccine-or-test mandate, he wrote, “is likely to result in the loss of many employees — either by employees leaving or being disciplined.”

The mandate takes effect Jan. 10, though OSHA officials have said the agency would not issue citations for violations until Feb. 9.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/01/05/ovid-19-vaccine-mandate-usps/

[C Moon]

1. Tulino was a DeJoy appointment back in May 2021. nt

[royable]

2. Lack of a vaccine-or-test mandate is likely to result in the loss of many employees --

either by employees becoming ill or dying. Customers as well. Employee's families as well. Our entire society as well.

[we can do it]

5. Too bad. There's lots of people who'd love to work at USPS.

[Rebl2]

11. Has some

good benefits, but not as good as when my husband started back in the eighties. He’s now retired and glad to be out of there. He was surrounded by right wingers where he worked. By the way the whole time he worked there, 30+ years, there were always rumors that the PO was going to be privatized. We quickly learned to ignore that.

[TygrBright]

8. Exactly. n/t

[Bev54]

3. When is DeJoy leaving, have they had his farewell party yet?

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Seriously. I thought it happened over the Christmas holiday and I missed it.

[Evolve Dammit]

4. Why? They are public servants (hate that term), but they are out in public. No excuses Mr. DeJoy.

For anyone anymore. They can be replaced by more civic-minded employees.

[BlueIdaho]

6. If they quit, they quit. If they get fired, they get fired.

I’ll just bet there are plenty of hard working Americans that would love the security of a US Post Office job.

[lefty_sockpuppet]

7. Not surprising

Given Amazon, UPS, and FedEx's stance on mandating vaccines in their workplaces thus far: [link:https://www.wsj.com/articles/many-logistics-firms-are-avoiding-covid-19-vaccine-requirements-amid-u-s-mandate-debate-11636583182|

Of course, USPS claims (right along with their shipping logistics brethren) that many employees would be "lost" due to employees quitting or being disciplined. But they don't seem to consider the many employees will they lose to illness (short term & long term), incapacity, and death? That can't be good for productivity either. And of course, it's not just the unvaccinated that are at risk of getting sick and impacting production, since the virus does not discriminate.

It will be interesting to see what OSHA makes of this request given the status of the USPS as a government agency, albeit one that is allowed some measures of independence.

Oh, and because it's obligatory to do so in any USPS thread, let me just say that Louis DeJoy is a twat.

[gopiscrap]

17. welcome to DU

[LoisB]

9. "ability to deliver the mail"...what a joke! I am still awaiting delivery of a package that was

due to arrive on 12/28. Mortgage statement was supposedly mailed over 10 days ago, still have not received it. I place the blame directly on DeJoy.

[PurgedVoter]

10. Hmmmm. No.

These folk are in the right place to spread disease. If they do not understand public safety and respect their fellow American's health, they need to be out of there. No slack here. If they have the time, retire them out immediately, otherwise so long, so sad. Thank you for quitting.

[paleotn]

13. Nope. Non. Nada. Nein!

[monkeyman1]

14. still need to get DeJackoff out ????

[MiniMe]

15. I paid a bill and mailed it on 12/6

On Monday, I got a second bill in the mail for the same thing. I called them, and the payment never arrived and they were threatening to send me to collection. I told them I mailed it on 12/6 and I was 't paying it again (the bill was a hospital bill and the payment was almost $800) They told me I better pay it again because they hadn't received it yet. They suggested that I put a stop payment on the check and reissue another check. I told them only if they were planning on reimburse me for the cost of the stop payment, and I asked if they knew how screwed up the post office was these days. They were being total jerks about it and asked me when I was [aying to avoid being sent to collections. That was yesterday, and I checked my bank account online and it cleared my bank yesterday which medas they had the check in their possession yesterday when I was talking to them. I don't know where the check was, or how it magically got deposited yesterday, but I was pretty pissed because they expected me to pay a 2nd time. Glad I refused to pay it again.

[inthewind21]

18. There is no logical explanation

For the total mess the mail is right now. Some things I get in 2 days, some things I get now are postmarked over 30 days ago from the delivery. I got my Dec AND Jan credit union statements within 2 days of each other. I had three things shipped using priority mail. All three were going to Nevada from South Carolina. 2 shipments I got in 5 days. The last one, well, I'm still waiting for it and now it's at 40 days since "shipment." Per tracking it appears to be going back and forth from "it's on it's way" to "arrived at carrier facility"

[twodogsbarking]

16. I grew up on a farm and I know my shit.

This is bull shit.