Statement of Patricia Ireland, President of the National Organization for Women
December 15, 2000
This holiday season the U.S. Postal Service has more to worry about than overwhelming quantities of packages to deliver. Today the National Organization for Women names the U.S. Postal Service a Merchant of Shame and launches an internet campaign to stamp out discrimination at the post office.
We challenge Postmaster General William Henderson to deliver women-friendly workplaces. We also challenge President-Elect George W. Bush to press the Postmaster General to show some compassion to the nation's postal workers and bring an end to harassment and discrimination in the Postal Service.
As a federal agency, the Postal Service should be a model workplace. Instead, postal workers from around the country charge widespread sexual harassment and discrimination. Even worse, these workers claim that they face retaliation after fighting for their employment rights!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't want my 33 cent stamps to support a system that allows such workplace abuses to run rampant. That's why NOW is also launching holiday e-greetings as an alternative to sending mail through the Postal Service. Rather than dropping off season's greetings at a local post office, anyone can log on to www.now.org and send holiday e-cards to their friends and loved ones. NOW's site also offers other ways to take action as part of the web campaign.
More than 900,000 people are employed by the U.S. Postal Service. That's less than a third of the federal workforce. But these workers file half of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints. Clearly something is amiss.
In San Antonio, Texas, 22 women and one man report sexual harassment, sex discrimination and retaliation for filing complaints or testifying on a co-workers behalf, at the hands of local U.S. Postal Service management. Four women postal employees in New York charge that they have endured retaliatory actions as a result of sexual harassment complaints. Several women postal workers in California report sexual harassment, sex and race discrimination, wrongful termination and even rape. They also claim retaliation from management for filing complaints.
In naming the Postal Service a Merchant of Shame, NOW plans to put public pressure on this federal agency to stamp out discrimination and all workplace abuses. The Postal Service is the fourth Merchant of Shame to be targeted under NOW's Women Friendly Workplace Campaign.