Postal worker

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A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. In the U.S., postal workers are represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union - NPMHU, the National Association of Rural Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union, part of the AFL-CIO. In Canada, they are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and in the United Kingdom by the Communication Workers Union.

The US Postal Service employs around 584,000 people.[1] The bulk of these work as:

  • Service Clerks - Sell stamps and postage, help people pickup packages and assist with other services such as passports.
  • Mail Sorters - Physically sort the mail to go to the correct place. As automation has become more common, some of these people now operate the sorting machines.
  • Mail Carriers - Deliver the mail. In densely populated areas this is done on foot. In urban areas the carriers often use a mail truck and in rural areas carriers drive their own vehicles.

Most postal workers in the US make between $36,000 and $43,000 per year.

The phrase was not very often used until a spate of workplace violence incidents by postal workers in the late 1980s made headlines. The incidents also led to the coining of the phrase "going postal".

Notable postal workers[edit]

Postal workers in fiction[edit]

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