Acts of desperation

The Human Cost of USPS Wage Injustice: Homelessness, Dehydration, and Desperation

Letter carriers—essential federal employees—are being systematically driven into homelessness, malnutrition, and severe health crises due to wages that fail to cover even the most basic necessities. The USPS, a cornerstone of American communication, relies on the physical labor of its workforce—yet it refuses to pay them a livable wage, creating conditions akin to modern-day economic servitude.

This isn’t just about financial hardship. This is survival. The toll of stagnant wages, crushing inflation, and managerial neglect is pushing dedicated federal workers into a state of crisis—forcing them to sleep in their trucks, go without food, suffer from dehydration, and turn to alcohol just to numb the exhaustion and despair.

Homelessness: Forced to Sleep in Postal Trucks

Letter carriers, who deliver mail to millions of homes, are being denied the dignity of having a home themselves. • With rent prices averaging $2,400 per month, carriers simply cannot afford housing. Their paychecks disappear into basic survival costs, leaving them with no option but to sleep in their postal trucks after shifts. • Some hide in parking lots or isolated streets, huddled in sleeping bags inside their vehicles, too ashamed to let coworkers know they have nowhere else to go. • Others rotate between couch-surfing, temporary shelters, or sleeping in their cars, all while maintaining the grueling demands of a full-time federal job. • This is not a choice—it’s an act of survival. No essential worker should be homeless. No one who works 10+ hours a day should be living in their vehicle.

Dehydration: A Daily Battle for Survival

Letter carriers walk 10–15 miles a day, carrying heavy loads through blazing heat, freezing cold, and pouring rain. Yet many cannot afford a basic necessity—water. • The cost of a case of water has risen to $8 in some areas—a price many carriers cannot justify paying on their already stretched budgets. • Some rely on filling bottles from public fountains, post office taps, or rationing what little they can afford. • Chronic dehydration leads to heat exhaustion, dizziness, confusion, and even hospitalization. In extreme conditions, carriers collapse on their routes, suffering from dehydration-induced medical emergencies. • Hospital visits result in medical bills carriers can’t afford, leading to debt cycles that further trap them in poverty.

Without proper hydration, letter carriers are being physically broken down—discarded like machines run to failure.

A Symptom of Desperation

With no way to escape the exhaustion, stress, and hopelessness, some letter carriers turn to resignation as a coping mechanism. • The mental and emotional toll of homelessness, overwork, and financial despair leads many to hospitalization. • Sleep offers temporary relief from hunger, exhaustion, and the crushing weight of financial ruin—but at a devastating cost. • Increased hospitalizations among carriers is a direct result of unjust wages and unbearable working conditions. • Instead of supporting their workers, USPS management ignores these struggles, treating carriers as disposable machinery rather than human beings.

This is not individual failure—this is systemic oppression.

Malnutrition: Starving While Working a Federal Job

Food insecurity is rampant among letter carriers. • Grocery prices have skyrocketed, with a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk costing $8 each. • Many carriers skip meals entirely or rely on the cheapest, least nutritious options—fast food, canned goods, or nothing at all. • A carrier who walks miles in extreme weather needs proper nutrition—yet many are running on empty. • Long-term malnutrition leads to chronic illness, weakened immune systems, and debilitating exhaustion. • Some collapse on the job due to lack of food and hydration—pushing their bodies beyond safe limits because they have no choice.

Letter carriers are being slowly starved while delivering mail to a country that takes their labor for granted.

Federal Slavery: Working Yet Trapped in Poverty

The current conditions faced by USPS letter carriers mirror modern-day indentured servitude. • They work long hours in brutal conditions, yet their wages fail to provide basic survival. • They are physically broken down but cannot afford medical care. • They are financially trapped—unable to afford housing, food, or rest, yet forced to keep working just to survive another day. • Management, which enjoys six-figure salaries and executive benefits, ignores their suffering while extracting every last ounce of labor from their workforce. • The federal government allows this exploitation to continue, refusing to intervene as its own employees suffer.

This is economic violence. This is state-sanctioned oppression.

This is a National Disgrace—And It Must End

The United States Postal Service cannot function without letter carriers—yet it treats them as disposable. • No worker should be homeless while employed by the federal government. • No worker should have to choose between food and rent while serving their country. • No worker should collapse from dehydration, starvation, or exhaustion because their wages are too low to sustain them.

This is an emergency. We demand: ✅ Higher wages that reflect the cost of living. ✅ Guaranteed Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs). ✅ Immediate emergency relief for carriers facing homelessness and food insecurity. ✅ A full investigation into the wage practices of USPS and management salary bloat.

Letter carriers deliver for America every day—it’s time for America to deliver for them.