Rally for postal workers in Detroit features fiery speeches, demands for better contract

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Fiery speakers made their voices heard in Detroit where members of the American Postal Workers Union rallied for a better contract.

From energized speeches by Motown Diva Lynn Marie Smith to others from the APWU, their goal was to made it known: they're essential workers.

"There is not a single piece of mail that gets into anybody's mailbox with you, without the APWU," one speaker said.

The union represents 200,000 workers across the country. Postal workers from Puerto Rico even showed up in big numbers at the convention.

"We're here organizing, letting the people know that we're ready to fight," said Sammy Hernandez, with APWU Caribbean region. "The postal service hires the most amount of veterans in the entire nation, so we are the postal service, the employees are the postal service, not the few people that work in headquarters."

The U.S.P.S has been under scrutiny under the leadership of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. In May, Sen. Gary Peters led a bi-partisan group of senators demanding that DeJoy pause the Network Modernization Plan.

"All of us deserve the right to work in a safe environment," said Carolyn Hermiez, of APWU Detroit. "We're just trying to fight for a better future for the postal service and our workers."

One of their demands? End the two-tier wage system.

"You have newer younger people doing the same work, less pay, it's divisive, it's demoralizing, so we certainly want to address it," said Mark Dimondstein, the president of the APWU.

And that means not just the quality of the working conditions, but also the quality of service.

"It's slow," said Tyrone Blount, of APWU New York. "We would like the mail to move like it used to in the past. So it's not happening like that."

"The problem is the mail, and it's too slow in many places. It's largely coming down to staffing," said Dimondstein. "You don't have enough staffing, you don't have the right service."