Postal Workers To Protest Outside LI USPS Office After Attempted Attack On Worker

MELVILLE, NY — Members of the American Postal Workers Union are set to picket the U.S. Postal Service's Melville office on Wednesday after witnesses said a local worker was the target of an attempted attack, according to the union.

The protesters plan to demand accountability for a district labor relations specialist from the USPS NY-2 District after she was accused of trying to attack a postal worker May 5 in front of witnesses, the union stated in a news release. The union said she used language that was "prejudicial and unacceptable in the modern workplace."

"It is significant that the assailant works in labor relations where her primary role is to resolve disputes, rather than create them," the union wrote.

The postal service's area and district management did not take disciplinary action against the manager, the union said.

"Similar conduct would not be tolerated if the offender was a non-managerial postal employee," the union wrote. "The USPS commonly disciplines workers for seemingly minor offenses."

The union said it expects the manager to be disciplined as a "craft employee would," said Pete Coradi, a national business agent in the clerk division of the New York Region American Postal Workers Union.

"It’s unacceptable that there is a double-standard for USPS management officials and postal workers represented by the union, as it relates to the USPS Code of Ethical Conduct and Zero Tolerance Policy," Coradi told Patch. "We expect the manager who became physically abusive to be disciplined in the same manner as a craft employee would. To date, no action has been taken against the offending management official. This double-standard is indicative of the toxic workplace environment which exists throughout the USPS."

The USPS Mid-Island Processing and Distribution Center in Melville declined Patch's request for comment.

Union postal workers from Westchester, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey are expected to picket alongside Long Island workers, according to the union.