NEWS AND VIEWS   

From: "FFXMURPH"
To: fdungan@genesisnetwork.net
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: your letter

 

Fred,

I do not know how true the situations you discribe in your letter are.  If it is fact, then the people should have to at least pay back the cost.  I am not that high a level in the P.O.  I am a Postmaster that has about 95 employees working for me.  What did you get fired for?  You sound very bitter, were you given a last chance agreement before you got fired?  You should understand that the PMG and top excutives get perks just like any other business.

Frank

 

From: Fred Dungan
To: "FFXMURPH"
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 1:22 AM
Subject: Re: your letter

 

Frank,

 

Today was a good day.  I was able to apply two coats of varnish to the kitchen cabinets before my feet gave out.  The pain I feel 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, will not permit me to forget the raw deal I got from the Postal Service.  You have no idea of what it is like to be a cripple with children innocently asking "are your feet on backwards?"  The Postal Service used me as a "leg man" for 11 years, then, when my feet collapsed and I could no longer perform my duties, they trashed my reputation and discarded me as if I was yesterday's garbage.

God gave me the strength to keep going.  Sometimes I scream, but the pain is good in a way because it lets me know I am still alive.  Writing helps me to transcend my negative circumstances and perform a valuable function to society.  People need to know what is going on within public entities.  It never fails to amaze me that even Postmasters such as yourself are so much in the dark that they have to come to my website to find out the truth.

Best regards,

Fred Dungan

 

 

 

From: "fred h."
To: fdungan@genesisnetwork.net
Subject: Support For Your Cause...
Date: Monday, November 27, 2000 4:51 PM

Dear Sir,

I wish to express my respect for you and your unjust treatment by the USPS.   I know, as an ex-spouse of a postal clerk who happens to be a veteran herself (nurse in Desert Storm).  I was good friends with several Viet-Nam combat veterans (primarily carriers) in her office who experienced situations (to varying degrees) very similar to yours.  I, being a 100% combat disabled US Army Ranger medic and an avid firearms enthusiast along with a highly decorated retired CWO (aviator) & a retired Army SGM all regularly participated in competitive shooting matches.  Much to my suprise my wife began to be harrassed & subtly threatened when the management staff (supervisors & PM) became aware of my friendship with the aviator (we both suffer from PTSD), beginning with statements that my presense at the facility(even to pick her up/eat lunch)caused some(unnamed)employees fear due to my training & friendships within the office.  She is an excellent, extremely productive and stable clerk, yet she began to receive the familiar badgering from not only her supervisor but the carrier supv'r as well, nothing she did was acceptable (though she regularly threw the most mail), she even took a machine course & assignment she did not want thinking it would lessen the abuse.  It got to the point where more senior employees even complained of her treatment, which was of course ignored.  It all came to a head when a male supervisor first threatened her job then blatantly sexually harrassed her, needless to say I took offense and confronted the individual man-to-man at the local shopping mall where we just happened to run into him.  I was very careful not to do or say anything threatening in any way, I simply made it clear that as her husband I found his actions toward her completely unacceptable and would take any/all actions available to me if he ever repeated the behavior (she had filed an APWU grievance regarding him).  Come Monday morning she was informed that she was suspended indefinitely without pay & I was being charged with the equivalent of aggravated assault/terroristic threats on USPS grounds???  When my friend, the Viet-Nam vet, voiced his disgust with the obvious shafting we were receiving, he got an official letter of censure.  Long story short, my charges were dropped after spending thousands of dollars on legal representation, she was unable to have the entirely fictitious allegations/charges removed from her file.  The stress & unreal work environment you excellent people have/had to endure is nothing short of criminal.  I wish to offer my support and condolensces to you and all in your situation.

Respectfully,
fred h.

Post Script: Not to be critical in any way, but only to save you from having to hear it from an unfriendly individual, the M1911A1 in fact has 3 built in safeties, though only 1 is manually operated(slide safety)the remaining 2 are the beavertail grip & any pressure applied to the end of the barrel/slide will make the weapon unable to fire.  So, the man you spoke of could not have released "two safeties" on his .45acp.  Also, if he had to release the safety that means that the action had to have been previously worked (else the safety will not move/activate), meaning either he already had a round in battery or he was carrying the weapon cocked & locked on an empty chamber?  Keep up the good work, our country needs more concientious men like yourself.   Thank You, Sir.

 

 

From: "Jason A."
To: fdungan@genesisnetwork.net
Subject: Mass Murder/Postal Purges site
Date: Sunday, December 03, 2000 10:18 AM

Hello--

As a 23 year old non vet postal worker who's only been there 2 years, I must commmend you on your site.  It's informative, and it's a good place to send people who don't believe what the postal service does.  Any time I tell someone that the supervisors will come out on the routes and count your steps to make sure it's not fewer per minute than the last time they counted you, most average people ask me if I'm serious.  When I tell them that management will spend 15 minutes griping about you "wasting" 15 seconds, people say "But that doesn't make sense....."   After only 2 years, I'm already looking for something else, if it means a pay cut so be it.  Things haven't changed much since you've been there, perhaps more paperwork and idiotic rules, but that's all.  Anyway, keep up the good work, and keep the site updated, just since I've been here I've heard of carriers:

-stashing mail at their house
-driving out of the office to the nearest river and dumping the entire contents of their truck into it
-hundreds of certified mail lettters being delayed on the east coast for over a month, just sitting in a post office
-we have a supervisor who has been in the postition for less than a year, and she's caused 2 carriers in the last 6 months to go on stress leave and file lawsuits that are pending against her.  It's happened TWICE in 6 MONTHS and the service still hasn't removed her or disciplined her in any way that is known to me.

And don't get me started on all the ways they waste money.  I tried once to drive a couple walking relays on a route, and when I did I saved about 20-30 minutes on the entire route.  I was told not to do that anymore by the same supervisor I mentioned above.  So, even though my way was faster, now I walk it.  Screw em.  I have not even attempted to look for money-saving ideas for them since, so I'm sitting on about 10 that I've kept to myself.

Take care, if you have any questions about anything I'd be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.  But I appreciate your site, most of these incidents I'd never heard of, but I really think what says it all is the fact that if you tell someone that a person "went postal" or is about to "go postal," that person you're telling automatically thinks "violent murder."

Sincerely,

Jason

 

 

From: "D. T."
To: fdungan@genesisnetwork.net
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2001 8:16 AM
Subject: MASS MURDER AND THE POSTAL PURGES

I found your website informative and distinctly correct.  I'm a 19 year postal clerk in Oklahoma City.  I remember quite vividly the atmosphere at the Edmond Post Office the same night of the shooting by Patrick Sherril.  I was there.  No, the post office didn't shut down for an entire 24 hours... it stayed open for it's employees to report to work.  The Edmond Post Office had 3 tours, so employees worked around the clock at this station.  Although I was not employed at the Edmond Post Office, I was shipped in by bus to work that evening (I worked tour one hours from 10:30 pm to 7 am), along with several other volunteers from the Oklahoma City Main Office.  The one thing that has to this day stayed in my mind was the blood stains on the bottom of my sneakers I saw when I returned home the next morning.  Yes, the floors were mopped... but not well enough...

You'd think that with a tragedy of that magnitude, the remaining coworkers would band togother... unify as family... have some sort of solidarity.  What I witnessed was bickering and hard feelings among the clerks who were working at the letter cases that evening.  I'll never understand why that was so.  I'm not a military veteran, but I agree with you about the "Crazy Pat" syndrome.   To this day, anything we say at work can and will be used against us... no matter WHAT the intent of the words.  Our words can and do get twisted into some sort of "threat" used by management for the sole intent of getting rid of the "rif-raf".

Employees here have been warned by management that we will be removed from service for any acts that could potentially give the Postal Service bad public relations, including but not limited to contacting the media.  One thing that really bothers me is something that the APWU consistently says about Postal Management... that management has the right to "mismanage".  I wonder who gave them that right?  Congress?...God???  At one point a few years ago, I thought I could make a difference.  I really did.  I applied for the new Associate Supervisor Program, and was selected for the very first class held for Oklahoma City applicants.  The program lasted 16 weeks... I lasted 14... by choice.  I was called into the office by three of the "big wigs", and was verbally abused for not knowing the answer to a question.  When my defense was that I wasn't told anything about it, I was verbally thrashed and threatened to be "sat down".  The station manager smugly sat in her chair there with a smirk on her face and lied the entire time... saying that she did in fact tell me about the subject at hand.  God knows and I know she did not.  I was also threatened by her with discipline if I didn't give a letter of warning to a carrier for being bitten by a dog on his route, because this was the carrier's FOURTH dog bite in his career.  Honest to God that's the truth.  I'm quite sure the carrier stuck out his arm in sacrifice to that damned dog....

The irony of the ASP program was that it was created to make a difference... a positive change.  In a perfect world, that would be terrific.  But, as you well know, this isn't a perfect world, and the ASP has a long way to go before any significant positive changes will really be seen.... when the assholes in charge are finally retired from service.  Thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest... it's been a long time coming...

 

 

 

This page last modified on April 3, 2002.