Sen. Warner is back in Charlottesville to push USPS on delays

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - U.S. Senator Mark Warner came to the University of Virginia Wednesday, April 13, to hear from the people who just can’t seem to get their mail consistently. His visit came just one week after the Postal Service Reform act became law, but he says the issue here is the pay.

“The most immediate effect will be if we can raise the base pay and even then, it will take some period of time to get folks hired,” Sen. Warner said.

For months we’ve heard about how mail issues have been impacting central Virginia. In the winter, people around the city and Albemarle County shared this with NBC29:

Now, the senator is back to visit an area that has been hit hard with mail concerns.

“We’ve got a crisis here, and that crisis is only going to be solved by hiring more people into the Charlottesville Albemarle postal service. That is the only way we can get it fixed,” Warner said.

He says when someone can get paid more working at a fast food restaurant than for the post office it’s an issue.

“If the post office doesn’t pay better than the fast food and being a postal carrier is a heck of a lot harder work outside in the weather, I’m not sure how we fill that gap unless we can make it more competitive,” Warner said.

People just aren’t applying to work at the post office.

The past job fairs haven’t been a success.

“There were more job offers than people. There were 10 people who stopped at the post office to put their names in, none of them wanted to follow up,” Warner said. “I don’t like politicians who give unrealistic promises. Long term, the financial health and post office is going to be much better but that will take place over a couple of years.”

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