A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. In the U.S., postal workers are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO, National Postal Mail Handlers Union - NPMHU, the National Association of Rural Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union, part of the AFL-CIO. In Canada, they are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and in the United Kingdom by the Communication Workers Union.
The US Postal Service employs around 584,000 people.[1] The bulk of these work as:
- Service clerks - Sell stamps and postage, help people pick up packages and assist with other services such as passports.
- Mail sorters - Physically sort the mail to go to the correct place. As automation has become more common, some of these people now operate the sorting machines.
- Mail carriers - Deliver the mail. In densely populated areas this is done on foot. In urban areas the carriers often use a mail truck and in rural areas carriers drive their own vehicles.
- Vehicle Operator - Drive the truck/vehicle carrying mails/pallets and dispatch from one place to another.
The phrase was not very often used until a spate of workplace violence incidents by postal workers in the late 1980s made headlines. The incidents also led to the coining of the phrase "going postal".
Notable postal workers
- Charles Bukowski, writer and poet
Postal workers in fiction
- The Postman
- Postman Pat
- Mr. McFeely
- Cliff Clavin
- Jacob Singer
- Newman (Seinfeld character)
- The Postman Always Rings Twice
See also
References
- ^ Postal Employees Stats at a Glance Archived 2009-01-31 at the Wayback Machine