Stamping Out Workplace Discrimination and Harassment at the Post Office

by Sommer Spector

In San Antonio, Texas, 22 women and one man report sexual harassment and sex discrimination at the hands of local United States Postal Service (USPS) management. They also charge retaliation for filing complaints or testifying on a co-worker’s behalf. Four women postal employees in New York say they have endured retaliatory actions as a result of sexual harassment complaints. Several women postal workers in California report sexual harassment, sex and race discrimination, wrongful termination and even rape. They also claim retaliation by management for filing complaints.

These are just a few of the 50 plus complaints the National Organization for Women has received regarding USPS workplace abuses. Since the USPS has been named NOW’s most recent Merchant of Shame, the complaints of discrimination and harassment keep coming.

More than 900,000 people are employed by the U.S. Postal Service. While postal workers comprise less than a third of the federal workforce, they file half of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints. According to David Grinberg, an EEOC spokesperson, over 14,000 complaints were filed with the EEOC against the U.S. Postal Service in 1998 alone.

Allegations have ranged from a hostile work environment, sex, race, age and religious discrimination, and wrongful termination, to sexual harassment, violence and in the case of Stoll v. Runyon, rape. After filing a complaint of managerial misconduct or testifying on another employee’s behalf, many postal workers report that retaliatory measures were taken against them, such as harassment, demotion, relocation, loss of pay and being passed over for promotion. Many workers suffer from physical pain acquired as a result of repetitive motion and lifting heavy materials. Yet, they fear taking medical leave to heal. Mental health has deteriorated into depression and destructive behavior as a result of workplace abuse.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want my 34 cent stamps to support a system that allows such workplace abuses to run rampant.” said NOW President Patricia Ireland. “As a federal agency, the US Postal Service should be a model workplace. I hope activists will send e-greetings from now.org and use other alternatives until USPS cleans up its act.”

On December 15, 2000, NOW held a protest outside of the U.S. Postal Museum and named the United States Postal Service a Merchant of Shame. The Postal Service is the fourth Merchant of Shame to be targeted under NOW’s Women Friendly Workplace Campaign. What makes the USPS’ claim to ill-fame as a Merchant of Shame distinctive is that as a government agency it should hold to equal employment rules as strictly as possible.

NOW activists around the country have been staging protests and distributing leaflets to educate the public about the USPS workplace abuses. During the holiday season, NOW launched an e-greetings postcard as an alternative to sending mail through the Postal Service. Instead of dropping off season’s greetings at a local post office, activists could log on to www.now.org and send holiday e-cards to their friends and loved ones. Online Valentine’s Day greetings were also available on the NOW site, as are general e-greetings.

The current USPS Postmaster General, William J. Henderson, will be retiring in May, but NOW will continue to put pressure for change on his successor and on the USPS Board of Governors. To help demand change, activists who cannot use an alternative to USPS to send a letter, can mark the envelope with an anti-discrimination message. Or contact the postmaster general and demand an end to harassment and discrimination in the U.S. Postal Service:

Postmaster General William J. Henderson U.S. Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20260
(202) 268-2000.

For more information or to share stories and strategies, visit NOW’s Women Friendly Workplace Campaign at www.now.org/issues/wfw, email: global@now.org, call (202) 628-8669 extension 145 or write to 733 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005.