PALMETTO, Ga. — Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff has opened an inquiry into the USPS sorting facility in Palmetto after at least four people have died there since it opened in 2024.
Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes reported on the latest death on June 5. The worker was identified as 45-year-old Demarcus Little, a father of three. A GoFundMe has been set up to help his family.
Many workers told Fernandes that they feel stuck working at the warehouse. They’re scared to be there but also afraid they won’t be able to secure another job quickly.
“They can’t get any help because they don’t have their phone,” said Kat Jackson, a retired postal worker.
Jackson said she almost transferred to the Palmetto facility, but decided not to after her coworker, Eric Smith, suddenly died there while working about one year after the facility opened.
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“He was a real friendly guy, and I know everybody liked him, and they got along with him well,” she said.
Since the facility opened, workers have complained about not having cell phone service inside the building.
“We haven’t had any phone service since we came to that building,” one worker said in an email. “Someone’s house had burned down to the ground, and they didn’t even know it until we went on break. Another employee’s child was in a very bad car accident and wasn’t able to be reached.”
According to Ossoff, an audit by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last year found “insufficient supervision and a poor employee work culture” at the Palmetto facility.
“When I inspected the facility in May 2024, staff reported similar issues, including lack of cell phone service inside the facility, and I’m concerned that these same complaints persist,” Ossoff wrote in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner. “Postal workers are working hard to deliver the mail and deserve safe working conditions and proper management.”
Ossoff said he has “requested more information about how USPS will address workers’ concerns, what progress USPS has made implementing recommendations from the OIG report, and a comparison of workplace safety standards with other regional processing and distribution standards.”
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