New bill would give federal protections for letter carriers after surge in violent attacks on job

WASHINGTON — Letter carriers around the country have been assaulted, robbed, even murdered while trying to do their jobs.

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On Wednesday, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building, fighting for federal on the job protections. They’re urging Congress to swiftly pass a new bill called the ‘Protect Our Letter Carriers Act.’ The legislation was just introduced Wednesday and has support from both republicans and democrats.

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“Since 2020, over 2-thousand letter carriers have been violently attacked nationwide,” Brian Renfroe, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers said.

He says that number rose 30-percent over the last year and most crimes committed against postal workers were with a deadly weapon.

“When it happened to me, it was two young men wearing ski masks and holding and AK-47,” a letter carrier in Detroit said. “They stuck it to my head and all they wanted was the key.”

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“You never think or expect to get robbed as a postal worker and all I was doing was eating lunch,” a Cincinatti letter carrier added.

Pittsburgh has experienced violent crimes committed against postal workers in recent years. In October 2021, a mail carrier was shot and killed by a former neighbor while delivering along his route in Collier Township. Bullet holes riddled the windshield of his mail truck. Then, in May 2022, a mail carrier was beaten with a baseball bat in Brookline. And last January, a letter carrier dove for cover in Perry North when a man who was upset about where his mail was, got out of a car and started firing an AK-47.

The ‘Protect Our Letter Carrier Act,’ which is co-sponsored by Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania (R PA-1) and Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio (D OH-1) would:

• Create high security collection boxes
• Replace universal arrow keys with electronic ones
• Assign Asst. U.S. Attorneys in each district to supervise the investigation and prosecution of crimes against postal workers and employees

Both representatives believe this legislation has the potential to pass with bipartisan support and make it to the floor for a vote as soon as this year.

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