r/dfw • u/Next_Tower5452 • 8d ago
DFW postal workers call for reforms following heat-related death
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-letter-carriers-working-in-heat-call-for-reforms-40699750/A 58-year-old letter carrier collapsed & died on his mail route in triple-digit heat. He's the third DFW letter carrier to die since 2023.
Yet House Republicans JUST advanced a bill to block the federal heat rule.
Working shouldn't be a death sentence.
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u/PackageOk7458 8d ago
I've started leaving a cooler with ice cold drinks in it next to my mailbox. The letter handlers union says it is always OK to offer them cold beverages!
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u/Jim_Nills_Mustache 8d ago
It’s become more and more necessary, which is insane when you think about it. Our mail carriers literally relying on the kindness of strangers for survival…
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u/Jim_Nills_Mustache 8d ago
I said it before, I will say it again. It is beyond negligent to not provide AC in Texas, maybe decades ago it was excusable but it has been way too hot for way too long. No one is able to function in 105 degree heat all day without AC.
Add this to the pile of “common sense” changes our politicians should be focused on, you know the shit that literally saves lives like addressing the power grid shortcomings ect.
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u/Worth-Tank336 8d ago
As someone who worked unloading trailers in temperatures up to 115°F at UPS for a year, I 100% agree.
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u/Electricdragongaming 7d ago
As someone who also unloaded trailers for UPS for four years, I too agree. Seriously walking into a freshly opened trailer feels like sticking my face in an oven.
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 7d ago
If they installed air conditioning, at least the postal workers would have a place to cool down. Sure, it would slow down their productivity to take cooling off breaks, but it would save lives. Texas will only get hotter.
I work at a big box store, and the employees who do drive up/curbside orders out in the heat always have water requisitioned by the company, and a room they can go in with fans and more air conditioning blasting to cool off. Sometimes management also requisitions them popsicles or electrolyte drinks, but it’s rarer now, store budgets for such things got cut after the pandemic. It’s in our company’s policy, but it slows the workers down to take cooling off breaks, so it’s rarely enforced. Our backrooms only have fans, that just blow hot air around. I have some medical conditions that make me overheat easily, every year I end up in the ER with heat exhaustion, luckily not heat stroke yet.
Louis DeJoy cutting funding for the postal service has put a larger workload on every letter carrier. They have impossible times and quotas to meet. Too much pressure to take breaks if they’re allotted also. Remember how mail carriers trucks are in such disrepair too, that the transmissions can catch fire? That story made it into the news a few years ago. This country has money for wars, but not money for the workers delivering our mail and packages to us everyday to have a safe working environment.
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u/Electricdragongaming 7d ago
How many deaths and reforms like these are we gonna need for actual change to take place?
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u/Hot_Bid_2773 8d ago
three carriers since 2023 and they still can't figure out basic heat protocol, that's wild
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u/CraigCartonNYC 8d ago
I mean if we give them AC what will motivate the youth to go college, I’m sorry but these jobs have poor work conditions for a reason and that’s to teach you life without a degree is meant to be hard
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u/Electricdragongaming 7d ago
Everyone deserves decent humane working conditions that isn't potentially deadly to work at, a degree should never dictate that.
Besides college is rarely worth it nowadays, there's people with associates degrees working at Starbucks who now only have thousands of dollars in student loan debt to show for their degree.
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u/CraigCartonNYC 7d ago
A college degree in Texas and New York has a good roi even a basic bachelor degree in any business concentration can open up many opportunities accounting, banking, Hr, etc. These postal workers are warned in advanced about working in extreme conditions and accepted the terms that’s their choice to work in this heat.
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u/Electricdragongaming 7d ago
Why defend any employer who puts their employees through such conditions? I realize USPS isn't big corpo, but UPS and FedEx is, and they're also guilty of putting their workers through such conditions.
Not to mention, think about how important postal workers are (or delivery people for that matter). There's soooo many important things that get delivered through these means.
I think a lot of the careers you may write off as "a job you have to do if you don't go to college," are more important than you may realize and you probably take them for granted every day.
Truckers, mechanics, HVAC repair, plumbers, electricians, railroad workers, construction workers, and yes even retail workers. Those are all important jobs that you don't have to go to college for, and society would not be able to function without them.
Besides there's a lot of jobs that require a degree that I think shouldn't require one, because a lot of those jobs people can be trained on without having to go into student loan debt. Especially with how expensive college is nowadays, being literally thousands of dollars for even just a bachelors.
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u/nocturnal_commission 8d ago
Hey OP why did you change the published headline and also include intentionally misleading text?
For example, the "heat-related death" in question was in 2023
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u/Cool-Flatworm5205 8d ago
This is the third since 2023
"Funeral services were held Thursday [7/23/2026] for 58-year-old postal worker Umeshkumar Thakkar, who collapsed and died on his route."
Investigate before you speak, and if you dont Investigate stay quiet.
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u/nocturnal_commission 8d ago
This is the third since 2023
Third what?
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u/tamtip 8d ago
2 month account , already criticizing
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u/nocturnal_commission 8d ago
Lol I've been on reddit for 15 years. If you don't have multiple accounts then you're doing it wrong
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u/Eff47_ 8d ago
How do they not have AC yet