Since 2004 the American Postal Workers Union has been complaining to the PTB that while wind and hail don't stop the mail, electrical shock can. (PTB = Powers that be.) Their complaints  about electrical hazards were falling on deaf ears so OSHA got involved about the bulk mail centers. These BMC's are no small operation. There are 350 bulk mail centers in the lower 48. And the size of each can be enormous.

“The first fine, $97,500, came in January against a postal plant in Des Moines, Iowa. The largest fine was $558,000 against a plant in Providence, R.I.

A Dayton plant was fined $225,000 in August, and a Cincinnati plant was fined $210,000 in September.”

These bulk mail centers are huge and I mean H-U-G-E. The center in Columbus is described as the size of 18 football fields where mail for 49 counties is handled.

What this article from The Columbus Dispatch reports is what can only be described as the final straw. So frustrated and dangerous are the defects that the DOL ordered all US Postal bulk facilities across the U.S. to fix the electrical defects. It’s unusual because some plants haven’t even had reportable problems.

“Because so many similar violations were found, the Department of Labor took the unusual step in July of ordering 350 postal facilities nationwide to fix electrical issues, even before some of those facilities had been cited.”