BEMIDJI — Mail and package delivery delays at the Bemidji Post Office are taking center stage as an example of problems with rural mail delivery across the country.
"We care about our people, we don't just care about the mail."Shelly, postal worker
Staffers from the offices of Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith hosted a roundtable discussion in Bemidji on Tuesday, Dec. 5, to gather information to take back to Washington, D.C.
Dozens gathered in the historic Mayflower building in downtown Bemidji to express how the recent changes at the Post Office are impacting them.
Senate staff heard numerous comments on conditions for postal workers, including testimony from family members, like 16-year-old Iris, whose dad has been a postal carrier since she was an infant.
"He's been working until 8 or 9, he hasn't been getting home until 9 p.m. and I'm worried about him," she said. "I'm in school, but I go on my phone and check his location, make sure he's still moving along the route."
Recently retired postal worker Shelly said she felt she had no other choice but to take an early retirement due to the stress of the additional workload from package deliveries.
"I feel cheated because I didn't get my full retirement, I had to take a cut," she said. "I feel bad for my people, my customers ... we care about our people, we don't just care about the mail."
Sens. Klobuchar and Smith have sent numerous letters to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Klobuchar said the priorities she is pushing for at the Bemidji Post Office include additional staffing, as well as route counts that reflect the current situation.
"They did (the route check) right before they started taking Amazon packages, and that skews what the numbers should be," Klobuchar said.
"So one of the things I'm going to be asking for is that they do another one immediately and not wait, because they just started increasing their package load."
Klobuchar said this would make a difference for compensation and what routes should look like.
"We want to make sure the people that are doing this hard work, they clearly love their customers, that they are compensated correctly," she added.
One community member at the meeting said rural carriers are not paid an hourly wage.
"They are paid at a daily rate set back in October, right before Amazon came," they said. " ... They are working terrible hours and not being paid for it."
Bemidji postal carriers gathered for a symbolic strike last month to protest 12-hour workdays and denied time-off requests after a recent shift to prioritize Amazon package deliveries, resulting in long mail delays felt by residents and businesses alike.
