Bemidji postal concerns lead to district-wide USPS audit in Minnesota and North Dakota

Jan. 26—BEMIDJI — After reports of mail delays and poor working conditions at the United States Postal Service gained local and national attention in November, with a special focus on the Bemidji Post Office, the USPS Office of the Inspector General has announced that an audit will be performed on the Minnesota-North Dakota Postal District.

The Bemidji office first gained attention when its rural mail carriers put on

a symbolic strike in mid-November,

protesting 12-hour days and what they described as an influx of Amazon packages that were prioritized over other mail deliveries.

This story gained the attention of national news outlets, and the offices of U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith held

a listening session in Bemidji

where residents shared their experiences and former postal employees testified to poor labor conditions that caused several people

to quit or take early retirement.

This led the senators, along with other Minnesota representatives, to call on the USPS Office of the Inspector General to conduct a full audit of the Minnesota-North Dakota Postal District.

"For years I have been raising the concerns of Minnesotans to the Postal Service, and they repeatedly insist that everything is fine," Smith said. "This audit will provide a much-needed, unbiased review of postal service in Minnesota."

This audit was officially announced by the OIG in its report of a similar investigation into mail services around St. Paul, Minn.

"(Those reports) just verified everything we've been hearing across the state," Klobuchar said. "They're going to do this same in-depth review in Bemidji, in Blackduck, in other areas across our state, and I think what (the OIG) found makes them believe that there are going to be other problems."

These reviews will be published as a part of a district-wide report that's expected in late spring, and what Klobuchar hopes will address ongoing constituent concerns.

"In Bemidji, we know the issue of the Amazon packages and the concerns there, the workforce issues," she said. "We just need to get this under control."

The review will examine the postal service's processing, logistics and delivery networks and will include observations of several post offices and mail processing plants as well as interviews with employees.

Alongside the examination of northern Minnesota's postal service, the investigation will also audit several North Dakota locations, including offices in Mandan, Minot and Bismarck.

The results of the audit will come with a detailed list of issues and recommendations, which district management will have a chance to agree with and implement.

"When a report is issued, the postal service responds to each (OIG) recommendation, and if there is agreement, it provides a corrective action plan with a date of planned implementation," explained Tara Linne, the OIG's director of communications.

These corrective actions are evaluated and closed by the OIG once they have been resolved. If the postal service disagrees with or does not act on a recommendation, another process is followed.

"(If there's disagreement) we work toward an agreement by elevating discussions between USPS and OIG management," Linne said. "Any recommendations that the postal service does not act on remain open and are reported to Congress until a resolution is achieved."

For the current and former postal workers whose efforts helped gain widespread attention, the audit is welcome news.

"This is the whole reason we started our endeavor with the symbolic strike," shared Dennis Nelson, a former rural carrier who helped organize the efforts and resigned in December because of the working conditions. "We needed public officials to get involved with this."

While the audit is only examining the Minnesota-North Dakota district, Nelson believes the issues with the postal service are likely nationwide.

"I suspect that these issues are not unique to our district. It's systemic," he said. "(This audit) has been a long time coming."

As for the changes he hopes to see, Nelson wants to see a less hostile working environment that treats its employees with respect. He also wants to see significant efforts made in hiring and an examination of rural carriers' pay systems.

Importantly, he also wants to have a better system for reporting problems. Nelson explained that while he worked for the Post Office the narrative was that the OIG was something to be feared rather than an institution to reach out to for help.

"We were told to fear the OIG and that if they showed up we were in trouble — that we did something wrong and they would be investigating us," he said. "It never occurred to anybody to contact the OIG or that they might be the people who could help us."

While Nelson may no longer work for the Bemidji Post Office, he hopes that this audit will mark the first step toward progress and making the postal service an improved institution.

"The whole idea was to get this thing rolling and make it a better place for everybody," he said. "It's too little and too late for those of us who had to endure it, but if all the changes come about that I hope, then the whole thing will be worth it."