After Hours: No, It’s Not You—US Mail Delays Are Real

Summary

Full Measure After Hours: "No, It’s Not You—US Mail Delays Are Real"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Full Measure After Hours
• Host: Sharyl Attkisson
• Episode: After Hours: No, It’s Not You—US Mail Delays Are Real
• Release Date: May 8, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Full Measure After Hours, host Sharyl Attkisson delves into the growing concern surrounding delays in the U.S. postal service. Observing significant delays in mail delivery, Attkisson investigates the underlying causes contributing to this "snail mail" trend. She brings to light the financial struggles of the Postal Service, including a staggering $9.5 billion loss in the previous year, and explores potential solutions amidst proposals from political figures like former President Trump.

Interview with Mark Diminstein

Overview of the Postal Service's Current State

Timestamp [00:00 - 04:07]

Cheryl Akison opens the discussion by highlighting the real and widespread mail delays experienced by consumers. She mentions her exploration into the issue, revealing systemic problems within the Postal Service.

Mark Diminstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union, provides his insights:

"I think overall we could say that the postal service is still extremely important to the lives of the people of the country... But we're also going through a challenging time." ([03:08])

Diminstein acknowledges the critical role of the Postal Service amidst shifting communication methods, emphasizing the need for modernization while maintaining reliable service.

Causes of Mail Delays

Timestamp [04:07 - 07:09]

Diminstein identifies multiple factors contributing to mail delays:

• Challenging Transition: Adapting to increased package volume due to e-commerce growth.
• Short Staffing: Insufficient personnel leading to inadequate service.

"There’s probably multiple reasons. Some of it is this challenging transition. Some of it is short staffing." ([04:29])

He underscores the union’s stance that management must hire adequately to meet service standards.

Impact of Cost-Cutting Measures

Timestamp [05:51 - 07:09]

The conversation shifts to the potential “death spiral” where cost-cutting leads to reduced service, further exacerbating delays.

"When you cut cost and cut hours of work and cut workers, that there's an equation often that will then result that the service isn't as good as it should be." ([06:08])

Diminstein confirms this dynamic, attributing recent service issues to management’s attempts to restructure the Postal Service to accommodate package growth.

Union Recommendations and Management Responses

Timestamp [07:09 - 11:42]

Diminstein outlines specific recommendations from the union aimed at improving efficiency without sacrificing service quality:

1. Local Mail Handling:

   • Advocates for keeping local mail within the same area to prevent unnecessary delays.

   "If you’re mailing a letter or package from the city you’re in and it’s to that city or the surrounding area that mail should not go on a two or three hour truck ride somewhere to be consolidated and come back." ([07:19])

2. Opposition to Outsourcing:

   • The union opposes outsourcing postal work to private contractors, citing inefficiencies and potential corruption.

   "We believe that a lot of the work that’s outsourced... can do it cheaper and better inside." ([08:04])

Diminstein praises recent management changes that align with these recommendations, noting improvements in keeping local mail local to reduce delays.

Historical Context and Changes in Delivery Speed

Timestamp [12:18 - 13:59]

Reflecting on the Postal Service’s evolution, Diminstein compares past and present delivery speeds:

"In the 1980s... we had overnight delivery to cities like Charlotte an hour and a half or two hours away... In 2011, 2012... Postmaster General... did away with overnight delivery everywhere." ([12:30])

He emphasizes the negative impact of these policy changes on mail reliability, stressing the importance of timely delivery for critical communications and services.

Administrative Proposals and Union’s Stance on Privatization

Timestamp [14:27 - 18:49]

Addressing recent proposals by the Trump administration to privatize the Postal Service, Diminstein articulates the union's strong opposition:

"The post office by law has to go to every single address six days a week... privatization... is going to be broken up and sold off to private corporations who would then make their decisions of where to send, where to go, as to whether they can make a profit." ([14:42])

He warns that privatization could undermine universal service, particularly harming rural communities and increasing package rates by 30% to 140%, as highlighted by Wells Fargo's investor reports.

"It would be illegal, but that’s a whole nother fight. But it doesn’t belong to a few billionaires. It really belongs to the people of the country and we want to keep it that way." ([18:49])

Diminstein envisions a future where the Postal Service expands its services beyond mail delivery, potentially incorporating financial services and other community-oriented functions, ensuring its longevity and continued public benefit.

Conclusion and Future Outlook

Timestamp [18:49 - 21:08]

Looking ahead, Diminstein remains optimistic about the Postal Service’s potential to adapt and thrive:

"I think there's a great future for the public Postal Service... Some of them have banking services... wonderful opportunity if we're willing to expand services, capture package growth and be there for the people of the country going forward." ([18:49])

He advocates for maintaining the Postal Service as a democratic institution serving all Americans, resisting privatization efforts to preserve its foundational mission.

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Additional Resources and Closing Remarks

Cheryl Attkisson concludes the podcast by directing listeners to her upcoming Full Measure episode for exclusive photographs and documentation of mailing delays. She also promotes her other works and encourages listeners to support independent journalism.

Key Takeaways:

• The U.S. Postal Service is grappling with significant delays due to staffing shortages and inefficient restructuring.
• The American Postal Workers Union advocates for solutions that prioritize local mail handling and oppose privatization.
• Privatization poses risks to universal service, especially for rural areas, and could lead to substantial rate increases.
• There is hope for the Postal Service’s future through expanded services and maintaining its role as a public institution.

Notable Quotes:

• “When you cut cost and cut hours of work and cut workers, that there's an equation often that will then result that the service isn't as good as it should be.” — Mark Diminstein ([06:08])
• “The post office belongs to the people of the country... It does not belong to a few billionaires.” — Mark Diminstein ([18:49])
• “The Postal Service is truly a small d democratic right of the people to have that equal service.” — Mark Diminstein ([18:49])

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For a deeper dive into the issues facing the U.S. Postal Service and to view insider photographs of mail delays, tune in to Sharyl Attkisson’s Full Measure on Sunday, May 11th, 2025.

Transcript

[Cheryl Akison]

Foreign hi everybody. Cheryl Akison here. Welcome to another edition of Full Measure After Hours today. No, it's not you. U.S. mail delays are real. I noticed in the past couple of years some extremely delayed mail coming to my house or other people telling stories about first class letters that should be arriving. We thought in one to three days that they were taking weeks or months, sometimes were not coming at all, were being returned even though they had been addressed to the proper address. And I began asking around and hearing other people talk and I started to think this was pretty widespread and I began looking into it to find out what was behind this snail male trend. It turns out it's true. It's well documented and there are a number of reasons behind it, which I get into in my Sunday, May 11th edition of Full Measure. 250 years now into its existence, the Postal Service is at a pivotal crossroads, you might say stuck in a dead letter pile of delays. There are also deficits and a lot of doubt about its future, with $9.5 billion in losses last year alone and sometimes mail taking weeks just to cross town or even be delivered across the street. My investigation not only unearthed a lot about the reasons behind all of this and some of the recent history behind the U.S. postal Service's problems, but I also got some inside information and details and documents and photographs that you will see showing stacked up mail at distribution centers that should have been delivered long ago, but was just gathering dust at the time the photographs were taken. But today in this podcast, we're going to hear from one person in this story, Mark Diminstein. He is president of the American Postal Workers Union. He's going to tell us about why some of this is taking place, but also address plans for fixes of the Postal Service, which I've been covering and reporting on as long as I can remember as a reporter, because the Postal Service has been in financial trouble for so long. But right now, President Trump has promised to make some fixes. He floated the idea of folding the Postal Service in with the U.S. commerce Department to try to cut the deficit and figure out what to do financially. There are a lot of proposals that Diminstein and the workers that he represents in the union, a lot of proposals that they oppose, which you'll hear him talk about. So here is Mark Diminstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union.

[Interviewer]

How many union members do you represent? How big is the force?

[Mark Diminstein]

We represent just about 200,000 postal workers.

[Interviewer]

And these are not the letter carriers.

[Cheryl Akison]

That's a different these are not the.

[Interviewer]

Letter carriers These overall, what would you say is the state of the postal service?

[Mark Diminstein]

I think overall we could say that the postal service is still extremely important to the lives of the people of the country. We're here to serve the people of the country. Certainly postal workers are dedicated to the mission of getting the mail moving, whether it's letters or packages, whatever, to everybody's home on time. But I think we're also going through a challenging time. There's a big change in the way that the people are communicating with each other. The Internet has fundamentally changed letter mail packages are an area of growth. But to get that growth, there going to be some different buildings, some different machines, from some different transportation routes. So there's a transition going on that hasn't been as smooth as we would have liked as the workers, but we're not running the post office. We do agree that there needs to be fundamental change to deal with the real mail mix of today. But it has to be done in such a way that always serves the people and keeps service good. And it's not as good as it.

[Interviewer]

Should be from a consumer standpoint to ask around, as well as some of the analyses that are officially done by government or those looking at it. The delivery is not as it should be. There's something going on. It appears where some of the mail is that should take a day, is taken a week. Sometimes it's taken weeks and months. To what do you attribute that?

[Mark Diminstein]

There's probably multiple reasons. Some of it is this challenging transition. Some of it is short staffing. If you don't have enough staff to serve the people of the country, then they don't get the kind of service that they should. And so we're very strong, as the American Postal Workers Union, that management has to hire enough people to do the job and get it done well for the people of the country. We're not a typical business. We're a service, and we're here to serve everybody. 169 million addresses every day. Kind of an incredible feat. But it's expensive and we go into a lot of areas that obviously nobody else would because there's not money to be made. It's not about making money. It's about serving the people. So those problems that exist, we certainly raise our concerns with postal management. Some of them are addressed. Some of them still need to be addressed. Addressed. We just did an interesting poll with the people of the country outside professional polling groups, and the report back on the satisfaction of the people around the service was actually quite high. I was pleased. I think it's maybe 88% of the stronger, strongest users of the post office really do like the service. But obviously there's a percentage that the post office is not serving as as we should. So that's just something we have to work on.

[Interviewer]

Is there a bit of a death spiral dynamic whereby management is trying to save money and by saving money they're cutting maybe personnel or hours and therefore the mail is not getting delivered the way it should be and therefore it just turns into this loop?

[Mark Diminstein]

I think there's something to that. I think that when you cut cost and cut hours of work and cut workers, that there's an equation often that will then result that the service isn't as good as it should be.

[Interviewer]

Has something like that happened in the past three years that's different than in the past 20? I mean, is there something going on now or this is just a continual transition?

[Mark Diminstein]

I think there's a real effort in the last three or four years on management's part to make a big fundamental change in the network of the postal system. Shift more to packages, not disrespect letters, but recognize that they are diminishing. Packages are growing. And I think that that sort of concentrated effort probably has exacerbated some of the problems. The hope is on the other side of the transition, people will get ever better service, especially in a day of E commerce and the importance of packages to the people.

[Interviewer]

Are there any recommendations that the union has made to management that translate into something consumers can understand, kind of simple stuff that they have or haven't done in the last couple of years?

[Mark Diminstein]

Sure. For instance, we've been big advocates as they're making these changes and they're moving mail sometimes distances to be sorted somewhere else and then coming back to a particular city. We've advocated that local mail stay local. That means if you're mailing a letter or package from the city you're in and it's to that city or the surrounding area that that mail should not go on a two or three hour truck ride somewhere to be consolidated and come back. And so management has listened to us and the people and they've made some changes in the last few months where local mail.

[Interviewer]

Tell me how when that happened because I didn't know that. So you're saying at what point in time did some of the mail go? Are those the distributions?

[Mark Diminstein]

Yes, the consolidation effort has been going on for a long time and that's a product of the diminishing volume. So if you don't have enough volume to process through a place, there's a natural tendency to aggregate it somewhere else and do it all together. But what happens is if you take the mail too far, it delays the mail. And so, at least on the question you asked about some of the areas where we've raised ideas and they've listened, that's an example of an idea we raised. If you want to consolidate a package from your city that's going across the country and you want to consolidate it somewhere, that's one thing. But they could take it somewhere else when you're sending it to your hometown or the surrounding town next door. Makes no sense. And management has listened on that issue and there are a number of others. We, for instance, believe that a lot of the work that's outsourced, meaning that it's contracted out to private contractors, often is a form of corruption inefficiencies, and that we can do it cheaper and better inside. And some of that work has come back as well. And we welcome that because we can serve the people better that way too.

[Interviewer]

Since I've been talking to some people at distribution centers, I want to just be sure I'm clear on this. Before the change, what's an example of something that could happen with a local letter going to a nearby address before this change? You said that they're listening to about.

[Mark Diminstein]

Well, when I came into the post office in 1983, everything stayed local. You know, if it started there, if it was going to go to another part of the country, we'll still sort it locally. And then it would go as mail, declined letter mail and flats and magazines, they tended to consolidate some somewhere else. And so that in itself did slow down the mail. And we are opposed to that. We want people to get on time. The law actually says prompt, reliable and efficient services. We need to listen to prompt.

[Interviewer]

So if I were sending a letter from Washington, D.C. to very nearby Maryland, the way it was working, it might go to a distribution center in an.

[Mark Diminstein]

Entirely different region, not in a place like Washington.

[Interviewer]

But I'll name an example.

[Mark Diminstein]

I'll give you an example. They had decided to take mail from Medford, Oregon, where there's a small processing plant, to Portland, Oregon. It's a six hour truck ride. That's an absurdity. Now, if you're taking a package from Medford, Oregon, and you're sending it to Boston, Massachusetts, it may make perfect sense to consolidate in Portland. Fill up the trucks, fill up the airplanes, and it makes the whole process more efficient. That same package that I'm mailing from Medford, to Medford. If it goes on a six hour truck ride, it's going to be delayed by at least a day each way, if not more each way. So those are the kind of things that we certainly have made strong appeals to management on. That is not good service.

[Interviewer]

And when did they commit to a change or start instituting a change in that? Did you say they listened to us?

[Mark Diminstein]

Yeah, they have changed over the last four or five months. They've announced and they announced a few more a couple weeks ago.

[Cheryl Akison]

So what does that mean?

[Mark Diminstein]

So they're going to keep like my example with Medford. I'm not sure if Medford's included, but that type of example is the mail that's mailed in Medford to stay in that area will now not go to Portland and stay in Medford. Again. I don't know if Medford was one of the ones they changed.

[Interviewer]

It's starting to change maybe a lot of these places.

[Mark Diminstein]

That's right. The importance of keeping local mail local. Otherwise you're just delaying mail.

[Interviewer]

Then one more point. Someone brought up at a distribution center, someone is telling us that the machines are being shut down for the day pretty early. Before that they, they've done the job that they need to do like at 4:30 every day. Do you know about that or does that matter? Is that a cost saving thing?

[Mark Diminstein]

Would you think it matters to the people of the country if their mail's not getting sorted on time and getting to the letter carriers that day to get delivered to the homes that day? So to us as postal workers and unionized postal workers, we would never want a machine shut down when there's more mail that needs to be processed in your time.

[Interviewer]

I know you weren't a letter carrier, but have you seen the time it takes for mail to be delivered? First class mail, for example, have you seen that grow? Is it taking longer than it did when you were in the 1980s?

[Mark Diminstein]

It absolutely is taking longer. In the 1980s, I came into the post office in Greensboro, North Carolina. We had overnight delivery to cities like Charlotte an hour and a half or two hours away. Cities like Raleigh an hour and a half away. In 2011, 2012, before this, Postmaster General, the leadership of the post office, management of the post office did away with overnight delivery everywhere for regular first class mail, even if you're mailing from one side of the street to the other. We oppose that as the American Postal Workers Union Postal workers opposed it. But management did it. And so the mail has been on a slower track for a while now. Packages are doing pretty well with speed right now. But that shouldn't be at the expense of your mail. The public's mail day in and day out, we rely on it. We need it on time. There's things in the mail that have to get there on time, medicines to our veterans and seniors, all sorts of financial documents. People need their mail on time and that's what we're dedicated to as workers. And it frustrates us as much as any postal customer. When we are not able because of policies of management, when we're not able to get that mail to the customer on time, we want to treat the mail as if it's our own.

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[Interviewer]

The Trump administration has come in and clearly put in its crosshairs, the Postal Service at least trying to change things and make some differences. Do you have any early thoughts about the things that you've heard so far? Are you guys trying to figure out what's going on and what they're going to do?

[Mark Diminstein]

No, we have some very strong thoughts. We think there definitely is more talk on the part of this administration, which was true in the first place, 2016 to 2020 time as well of President Trump. There's a lot of new talk about privatizing the Postal Service or taking it over or putting it up under the Commerce Department. And I just want the listeners to realize how dangerous that is to their postal services. And the reason it's so dangerous is because the post office by law has to go to every single address six days a week and sometimes seven, but by law, six days a week. That if the post office were to be privatized and what privatization means, it's going to be broken up and sold off to private corporations who would then make their decisions of where to send, where to go, as to whether they can make a profit. The post office is not here to make a profit. So that what we call the universal service, the right of every person and everybody listening to this show as a postal customer either receiving or sending, but that right that we all have would actually disappear and it'd be particularly probably hurt rural America. So we're very concerned and we think the public should be very concerned about any talk about privatization. The Post Office belongs to the people of the country. We're not about that. The shareholders of Wells Fargo. Very interesting side piece, Wells Fargo with all this talk privatization coming from the administration, coming from unelected billionaire Elon Musk, who goes before JP Morgan a week or two ago and says everything should be privatized and singled out Amtrak and the Postal Service. But these are the billionaires. So what Wells Fargo said was, hey, this is great news. If they privatize, it's going to be good for investors. Why they acknowledge in their report to investors, it's in writing, that the post office, if it were privatized or the parcels were separated out of the system, the post office would have to raise or all package rates would have to be raised by 30% to 140%. And Wells Fargo is saying that's good for the investors, it's good for the shareholders. But the shareholders of the Post Office are the people of the country. And clearly, while these big corporations may want to raise package prices, the Postal Service is the low cost anchor of the entire mail package system in the country. Think about what it would do to E Commerce if the private package companies were able to get rid of the Post Office, the public low cost anchor, and we're going to raise our package rates 100 or 150%. Every single person in this country would pay a price.

[Interviewer]

Not to that point, but the one point about daily having the daily delivery being the law. Couldn't a privatization, a requirement be that you have to meet the law? In other words, if someone private takes over a route or a region of the country, but the privatization is contingent upon you have to follow that law.

[Mark Diminstein]

Well, I'm not sure how that would work because the whole idea of privatization is how do you make a profit? And there's a whole lot of the postal system that nobody could make a profit on. Which means in all likelihood post offices would close, certainly prices would rise up. You know, a lot of times people are raising who want to privatize. Well, they've done a lot of this in Europe. Yeah, it cost $2.05 to mail a first class letter in England. And it's a lot smaller of a territory than the United States of America. So that would just lead to higher prices, less service, less decent living wage jobs which help build strong communities. So the whole thing's a lose lose for the people. It's a win win for the Wells Fargo investors.

[Interviewer]

Sounds like we're in sort of an uncertain time. But if you had to look ahead five or 10 years, what would you say we're in for?

[Mark Diminstein]

I think there's a great future for the public Postal Service. It's a changing world. There's a lot of things the Post Office can do for the people of the country. Many of the posts around the world, for instance, provide deep financial services. Some of them have banking services. There could be all sorts of things the Post Office does with licensing, with government access to information. There's just a wonderful opportunity if we're willing to expand services, capture package growth and be there for the people of the country going forward. So when you say five or 10 years, I'm trying to look forward 250 years now because this July is the 250th anniversary of the Postal Service, older than the country itself, enshrined in the Constitution. I think it's very important for the listeners to know or to remember it's not taxpayer dollars. It's funded by the users. It's not on budget. Yes, there's some challenging times, but I think when we get through this, I'm looking for the next 250 years. It's changing, yes, but that the Postal Service is truly a small d democratic right of the people to have that equal service. And as it changes, that service is just going to be as important as ever. Think about E commerce, a small business person trying to reach the markets of the country or the world or the people receiving those things. So the Post Office role may change. Some mail is always going to be important. Advertisers send my wife and I plenty of things. They do it for a reason. It works during election time. We get informed of candidates, we get informed of election procedures and we can vote by mail. It works. Those kind of things are invaluable to the people of the country. So I look forward to a bright future. We're going to have to get through a difficult transition. The people of the country very much support and trust the Postal Service. They want the service that the law says you should get. And so do we, and we're going to have to work that out. But I think there's a bright future as long as we don't let the billionaires take it over. It would be illegal, but that's a whole nother fight. But it doesn't belong to a few billionaires. It really belongs to the people of the country and we want to keep it that way.

[Cheryl Akison]

For more on this story and to see the insider photographs and documentation that I got showing what's happening at processing centers where mail is being delayed and stacked up unbeknownst to us most of the time. You can watch my report on Sunday, May 11th on full measure. To find out how to watch, you can go to cheryl Atkison.com and click the Full Measure tab for a list of stations and times. Or you can just go to our YouTube full measure channel on Sunday, May 11th where we will post the program. It also feeds and is posted on Sundays at Fullmeasure News. Lots of ways to watch this program and thank you for making it so that our viewership, unlike so many news programs, has gone way up this year. We hope that's a trend that continues to grow. So thank you for the support. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast and that you'll consider sharing it with your friends, leaving us a great review and subscribing to it. And check out my other podcast, the Cheryl Akison Podcast. For a great way to support independent journalism causes while informing yourself in a really important way. Check out my national five star bestseller, Follow the How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures and Prevails. You'll see why so many people have not only bought this book for themselves, but bought a version of it for a loved one or for friends. Because most everybody has some reason to be concerned about their health and is impacted by the corrupt medical establishment. This book explains a lot about how we got there, not just with insider anecdotes and how the media and the medical establishment work and how they've become so corrupt, but also with hard data, facts, statistics and studies that document why we are so sick as a society today, when we've never spent more money on doctors, hospitals, medicine, and all kinds of things in the medical establishment. So that's follow the science. Hope you'll consider picking up a copy today. And lastly, check out the Cheryl Atkison store by going to Cheryl Atkison.com and clicking the Store tab for some exclusive items for independent thinkers like you with slogans like I need to find some new conspiracy theories. All my old ones came true. Proceeds support independent reporting causes. Do your own research. Make up your own mind, Think for yourself.