"Scandalous.' NY congressional leaders take action on habitually late, missing mail
The president of the NY metro area postal workers union warns that consistently late and missing mail are part of a much larger issue.
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News 12 has documented frustrated customers across the tri-state waiting for hours and dealing with chronically missing mail for months.
The president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union Local 10, which represents nearly 4,000 workers across New York and New Jersey, warns that those problems are part of a much larger issue.
"What is at stake here? It's the deterioration of the United States Postal Service on purpose," says Joseph Martier, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union Local 10.
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Martier claims the Postal Service recently implemented an 8 a.m. "hard stop," requiring clerks to stop processing mail - even if First-Class Mail and parcels remain.
He says the consequences can be devastating.
"My concern is that those parcels contain medicine," he says.
Martier also provided the Turn To Tara team with photographs, which he claims shows mail left behind at a Bronx post office.
The U.S. Postal Service has not confirmed those allegations, but it has now caught the attention of members of Congress.
Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres sent a letter to USPS last week demanding answers about the reported hard stop policy.
"Scandalous....Medication can be a matter of life and death, or if there's a delay in the delivery of an absentee ballot, it undermines the integrity of our elections," says Torres.
His next steps?
"Everything's on the table, oversight, hearings, investigations," he says.
The concerns are now spreading beyond New York City.
Hudson Valley Rep. Pat Ryan has also demanded answers after hearing from constituents about chronic mail delays.
A federal watchdog report last May found First-Class Mail performance has declined since 2022, despite USPS lowering some of its delivery standards.
It also comes as the USPS is warning Congress it could run out of operating cash without legislative changes.
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