Postal union calls for more action after employee deaths at Atlanta USPS mail distribution center

Four U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employees have died at the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center since it opened in 2024.

USPS has said the four deaths have been determined to be of natural causes and were not workplace incidents.

However, leaders in the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) are calling for accountability and have said their safety concerns were unheeded before it was too late.

APWU President Jonathan Smith sent USPS a letter demanding "corrective action" June 25 and requested USPS issue a safety review of the facility.

However, because the deaths did not result from workplace incidents, USPS said it respectfully declined that request July 8 in a written response to Smith.

"If any death had been caused, for example, by unsafe work conditions or inadequate training or improper instructions from a supervisor, I would be happy to work with you to address and correct those concerns," the representative wrote to Smith.

APWU leaders and local elected officials held a rally outside the Palmetto facility Thursday to honor the four workers.

Smith told CBS News Atlanta he has been calling for better emergency communication since November.

"The Postal Service knew when they built this state-of-the-art facility that they have no cell phone service. Cell phone service is kaput," said Smith. "It got to the point where they were telling the employees you shouldn't be using your cell phone anyway."

However, USPS has said cell phone reception within the facility is out of their control, also communicating that in the response letter to Smith.

USPS also told him it has reported the  service problem he raised to the local mobile service providers.

USPS also said they have been focused on making communication more reliable and have installed emergency telephones programmed to call 911 in addition to easily accessible and identifiable 27 phones at strategic locations within the facility.

"The Postal Service recently completed necessary testing on those emergency lines to ensure that they connect to local emergency services properly. Those telephones are currently operable," the letter reads.

Smith said he believes the installation is too late.

"The Postal Service likes to say when we put in the emergency phones, but what I like to say is, after the fourth death, what took you so long? Why did you have to wait for the fourth death? They worry about priority mail. I worry about putting priority on lives, and these lives had value," said Smith.

Smith said the phones were not installed until roughly seven months after his request and after the four workers had died.

Union leaders also raised questions about the quality of emergency training employees received.

Don Barron, APWU Safety Specialist, told CBS News Atlanta he heard about the training quality via a Zoom call with employees.

"They were like, a person came in and came out. We never got our cards. We were never tested on anything, so it was very inadequate," said Barron, "so it was pretty much the Post Office just rubber stamping and saying, 'Hey, we did it.'"

USPS said 31 employees are currently trained in CPR, and another CPR certification class is planned where employees may attend on a voluntary basis.

At Thursday's rally, the four workers were honored with flowers and a moment of silence.

Their names were intentionally left unsaid.

"I did not call out each individual name because they do not want this to be associated with their name," Smith said. "They want to be associated with change."

USPS has said the company offers 24/7 resources for employees to cope with stresses including its Employee Assistance Program.

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff has launched an inquiry into the deaths.