April Woods still gets choked up when she talks about what happened after two men stole packages out of her mail cart on the 7400 block of S. Vernon.
“They were a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old. They got some type of supervision. They were charged with a theft — not that they robbed a postal worker,” Woods said.
“I do love my job, but it is the crime in Chicago that is making everything seem so unsafe,” she said.
“It used to be letter carriers had a certain respect in the neighborhood, but those days are gone,” said Mack Julion, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 11-Chicago.
Julion believes a decision by the Chicago District Postal Service to push back the start time for most letter carriers to as late as 8:30 a.m. will only make the situation worst.
“The Chicago District is not doing enough in terms of trying to keep carriers safe,” Julion said.
“Their response is to start carriers later making it more likely that they will be out on the streets at night in the dark. That just increases the likelihood that a carrier can get hurt.”
Mark Reynolds, a spokesman for the Chicago U.S. Postal Service, agreed there have been a series of assaults on letter carriers, but noted this is not a “sudden development.”
“We are aware letter carriers would like to start earlier and get off the streets earlier,” Reynolds said.
“Unfortunately, we have to balance that against our processing facilities. If we brought them in earlier, they might be waiting for the mail.”
Reynolds also claimed that “all of the delivery routes” in the City of Chicago work out to be an “8-hour route” even in cases where carriers are starting at 8:30 a.m.
“We would still have them on their way home by 5 p.m.,” Reynolds said.
Julion disputes that claim.
“We had a carrier on the streets delivering mail up until 1 a.m. last week,” he said.
On Monday evening, letter carriers will hold a flashlight vigil at the main post office at 433 West Harrison St. to bring attention to their plight.
“We need to start earlier,” Julion said.
“We want to bring light to the fact that carriers are out there at night.”
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