[Editor’s Note: One in a series of investigative reports of employees’ internal complaints at a branch of the U,S. Post Office.]
Dear Mr. Wattree,
Since you have identified yourself as a writer of a blog apparently associated with a news outlet, I have been asked to respond to your email on behalf of Los Angeles District Manager Ed Ruiz and the U.S. Postal Service.
As you are an employee currently on the rolls of the Postal Service, it is important to know that the Postal Service is committed to ensuring a workplace that is free of discrimination and to fostering a climate in which all employees may participate, contribute, and grow to their fullest potential. We recognize and value our diverse workforce and are committed to fair treatment of all employees.
Consistent with this policy, the Postal Service encourages you and all employees to raise any workplace concerns through the proper channels made available by collective bargaining agreements as outlined in administrative policies. All employees may also utilize Equal Employment Opportunity processes.
Allegations of possible criminal conduct should be reported to the Office of Inspector General, or in the case of physical misconduct, to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Retaliation against any employee who raises a claim or provides information in an investigation is illegal and will not be tolerated.
It is not appropriate to comment in a public forum on alleged internal grievances in process or raised by a third party.
Richard Maher
Corporate Communications
U.S. Postal Service
Mr. Richard Maher,
I'm going to be longwindedbecause I have much to say in response to your veiled threat.
Please spare me the nonsense. You are wasting valuable revenue that the postal service should be using to get the mail delivered on time. I used to write this kind of hypocritical crap for the Post Office. It is my understanding they are considering re-activating my employment to shut me up. I don't have a problem with that. I look forward to testing whether the agency has a legal right to force me to lie on its behalf. That is exactly what I was previously employed to do. I look upon that chapter of my life with shame. If you have integrity, Mr. Maher, so should you.
If one syllable of this politispeak you have sent me were true, postal employees wouldn't be suffering the indignities and hardships that they're being forced to endure. Instead of sending my email to a public relations office, District Manager Ruiz would have responded: “I've received your communication of unconscionable employee abuse. Your allegations will be investigated immediately, and if your concerns are found to be true, appropriate corrective action will be taken against all of the managers involved.”
As for my association with the postal service, it is technical at best. I am writing these articles in my capacity as a paid journalist. I am confident the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of the press supersedes any obscure postal regulation prohibiting my freedom to speak out on any issue, including Post Office corruption. Of course, the postal service is free to challenge that constitutional right.
What better position could David be in than to engage in battle with a Goliath whose hands are too dirty for him to win? America started out as David. The American people love such fights. The American people also love people who are willing to fight for justice against governmental brutes, especially a brute who is doing a horrible job of serving their interests. Guess whose side they will come down on?
I relish such a challenge. It would bring the unconscionable, un-American conduct of the United States Postal Service's treatment of its employees under the public scrutiny of the American people. That is the objective of this series of articles. Any price I may pay will pale in the face of suffering by thousands of employees because this issue has not been brought to light until now.
It couldn't happen at a better time, an election year. If you decide to wait until after the election to bring charges, this letter attests to when the postal service first became aware of the situation. If you plan administrative action against me, do so immediately. Delay due to political concerns will render the action untimely.
While I've always had an innate love and understanding of the law, I don't have a law degree. I cannot I can't match the grasp that the postal service’s attorneys have. But life has a curious way of playing out. If I had become an attorney, I never would have experienced the hardships that postal workers endure. Maybe my entire life was only a prelude for this moment, and engaging you in this fight was the only thing I was born to do. It sounds farfetched. I intend to engage you as though my destiny were handed down from Mt. Olympus.
That the postal service sent me this email betrays the fact that its leadership is out of touch with old-school Americans. You thought that I would be intimidated. But you only have managed the opposite. I am a baby boomer weaned on fighting injustice. We are not weak. There is something about fighting a battle that could benefit thousands that has an irresistible appeal to my nature. All you have done is start World War III.
Send this response to your legal team. Tell them I said bring it on. Unless they got their degrees from a Cracker Jack box, they will advise the postal service to pass on this battle. They cannot win. It is clear that the postal service's battle won't be with me, but with the Constitution.
One weakness in your argument is that, according to you, the appropriate way to address this issue is through the Office of Inspector General and the grievance procedure. Ordinarily I would agree. But if you have read this series, it will be clear that the collusion of the Office of the Inspector General and the unions is a large part of the problem.
Failure of the law enforcement mechanism within the postal service will be a huge part of the case before the court. The record of those failures not only will substantiate my case, and demonstrate that the system is corrupt, it will give thousands of employees a cause of action against the postal service.
As I see it, the postal service has two options. Either quietly change its policies and adhere to the law, allowing me to crawl back into relative obscurity, or you can make me a latter-day folk hero. Either way, things are going to change because you can’t shut me up. If you don't address these issues on your own, I will see to it that you are forced to address them in public.
What you are reading is not arrogance, simply the frustration of a private citizen sick of your hypocrisy. I also am sick of watching the postal service destroy people's lives for nothing more than the personal gain of bigwigs. I am determined to do something about it.
Do you know how many votes postal workers, their friends and family represent? I understand that they don't have to beg. They are in position to demand. With the help of the various publications I write for, including the Postal Employee Network, I will help them understand the strength of their position. More importantly, I'm going to help them to make their congressional representatives aware of that fact. When I am done, some of you arrogant bureaucrats will be out of a job.
We will look at the record of your behavior and clean house. I suggest to Mr. Ruiz that instead of having someone else write his letters, he should start mending fences with employees.
Postal workers have been wasting their time going administrative when they should have been going political. The only way their lives will change is by using the political clout of their numbers against the Post Office bureaucracy, the government and their unions. Instead of bringing this to an end, you have ignited a beginning.
I would have been happy to have fought this battle in relative obscurity. But take me through the courts and drag me through the mud. Make me famous. My two children are grown. My wife of 33 years and childhood sweetheart is dead. All I have left is something that makes my life worthwhile. It is becoming clear this may be my chance.
I am not hearing your threats, but, rather, the suffering of thousands of postal employees who can't stand up for themselves because they have young families to raise. I also hear the voice of my late wife cheering me on: “Now that's what I'm talking about. Get’em, baby!”
Take everything I own. Put me on Skid Row. But you better make sure I don't have a computer.
Fight Government Corruption
The document reads, “We the People,” not “We the Government.” This is a covert encroachment on the American middle class that the people simply must repel, or the rights of all Americans will be jeopardized. Once the government declares open season on employees, who is left to protect us from private exploitation?
“A citizenry of sheep begets a government of wolves.”
— Edward R. Murrow
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202.225.5051
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree@verizon.net and ewattree@Gmail.com
You may learn more about Mr. Wattree at wattree.blogspot.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everybody who doesn’t look, think and act like me. It’s just that God does
