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Wait longer than planned for your mail? Know that you are not alone. In recent years, the American postal service (USPS) has acquired something of a reputation for its slow delivery. Customers of several parts of the country have already pointed out Delivery delays In 2024, some claiming that they received their mail, at most, once a week. But if you hope for quick relief, you are probably disappointed, because even USPS workers talk about the severity of current delays.

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Christine Pruitt , Vice-President of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) branch in Wichita, Kansas, spent nearly four decades in the industry, said Kake Local Abc-Affiliate In a new report . She recently visited the Wichita Processing and Distribution Center in mid-March after receiving complaints of more than 250 USPS employees who work there, according to the Station de Nouvelles.

"I wanted to see him for myself," said Pritt in Kake. "Because the frustration in some of their comments was really to know why things were not moving."

She found the warehouse filled with mail pallets which were stacked on the ceiling and overflowing in the aisles. He had remained intact for days or even weeks, at the same time, according to Pruitt.

"It's the worst I have ever seen," she recalls to Kake. "And probably the most discouraged employees I have ever walked."

Not only that, but Pruitt also found a container with living chicks in one of the aisles.

"If we hold them up additional day, they die," she said. "They cannot survive without being delivered."

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The USPS has repeatedly blamed its delivery delays on a national level in progress staff shortages . But Pruitt told Kake that the Wichita Center has enough workers to meet the current demand. So why delays?

Pruitt points his fingers on a new Package This was installed in the installation in 2021. At the time, the USPS said that it was one of the 118 new parcel sorters distributed nationally to provide more reliable service "to customers . These new machines are able to treat thousands of packages in just one hour, which is up to 12 times faster than manual sorting, according to the agency.

But the USPS union worker said the new package sorter machine had actually made things slow down. Showing documents in Kake, she said that the establishment's reports indicate that management closes the machine for about 10 to 12 hours per day on average.

"They simply hold [the mail] for this new machine that they do not use," said Priitt. "It's like, why don't you let them work manually? If you don't use the machine, let them take it out."

In fact, Pruitt said the Wichita Center has USPS workers on the clock 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when the machine does not work. And they are all trained to treat plots by hand, because that is how they worked before the installation of the new machine in 2021.

"We have always had manual operations," she told the press press. "It's just part of the nature of the beast, if you want to call it like this. But they don't let them do it."

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Consequently, the installation is stuck with a mail that is stretched for hours when the machine is broken, creating bags of backup that employees cannot catch up, even when the machine is again during execution.

"Employees are very proud to know that we have done everything," said Priitt in Kake. "They are very proud to know that they serve the customer. Right now, they are so frustrated that they cannot see anything. It does not seem that they are moving forward. Because they are not."

Better life contacted USPS about these complaints, and we will update this story with its answer.

But in a comment in Kake, the postal service said that even if its Wichita treatment and distribution center treats mail and packages seven days a week, "mail and package volumes can fluctuate during treatment hours. ""

"Our Wichita postal employees are doing incredible work to reduce the possibility of delays, however, we thank you for bringing this to our attention," the agency told the media. "The postal service undertakes to provide the best possible service to our customers and we are proud of the efforts of our postal team from Wichita to move the American mail."