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The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) has called for an independent investigation, led by rank-and-file workers, into the recent deaths of US Postal Service workers Nick Acker, 36, in the Detroit area and Russell Scruggs, Jr., 44, near Atlanta. We urge postal workers to come forward with information about safety conditions at their facilities by filling out the form below. All submissions will be kept anonymous.
A 28-year postal worker died overnight in early December at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center (Morgan P&DC) in New York City while working near an Automated Package Processing System (APPS) machine, multiple workers at the facility have told the WSWS. At the time of writing, neither the United States Postal Service nor the postal unions have issued any public statement acknowledging the worker’s death or explaining the circumstances surrounding it.
Workers told the World Socialist Web Site that the death occurred on Tour 1, the overnight shift, sometime around 2:30 a.m. The worker’s name has not been publicly released. Conflicting accounts circulated among workers as to whether the death was caused by a heart attack or an aneurysm, underscoring the absence of any transparent investigation or communication.
The Morgan Processing and Distribution Center is a major USPS facility serving the New York metropolitan area, including Wall Street and surrounding financial districts. Despite the size and strategic importance of the facility, workers report that the death was not formally announced, no meeting was held and operations continued as usual.
The death at Morgan follows a series of recent fatalities at USPS facilities across the country. On November 8, maintenance mechanic Nick Acker was killed inside a mail sorting machine at the Detroit Network Distribution Center in Allen Park, Michigan. His body was not found for another eight hours. One week later, Russell Scruggs, Jr., a mail handler assistant, died after falling and hitting his head at the Palmetto Processing and Distribution Center in Georgia. In each case, union officials have deferred to management-led or OSHA investigations, which will inevitably lead to whitewashes.
In response, the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee has launched its own independent inquiry. In a statement last week urging workers to come forward with testimony, the committee explained that the inquiry “will collect testimonies, inspect machine lockout/tagout records, document the bypassing of safety features, obtain grievance histories and witness statements, and preserve photographic and video evidence.
“The purpose is not only to establish responsibility for these deaths but to produce clear demands and plans to enforce safe working conditions under workers’ control,” it added.
At Morgan, workers say a brief inquiry was conducted by postal inspectors. One worker said inspectors appeared on a later tour and questioned workers who were not on duty when the death occurred, focusing on personal background questions rather than conditions on the shop floor.
“They didn’t ask me anything,” the worker said. “They talked to one of my coworkers. They asked if she had known her a long time, if she had problems with other employees. That kind of thing.”
To WSWS reporters, the worker raised questions about the lack of cameras in large areas of the facility where high-speed automated equipment operates continuously. “It’s a huge area,” she said. “How can they not have cameras? Supervisors don’t walk around.”
Another concern cited by workers was the absence of visible medical preparedness during overnight shifts. One postal worker recalled a prior incident in which a coworker attempted to revive someone suffering a medical emergency despite not being a certified medical personnel. The experience, she said, was traumatic and left workers fearful of similar situations occurring without adequate response.
One worker interviewed by the WSWS explained the responsibilities of expediters on APPS operations. These are clerks responsible for supplying rolling carts and other equipment needed to move parcels on and off automated machines, ensuring production continues without interruption. The job requires constant movement throughout the facility, giving workers broad exposure to conditions on the shop floor.
Workers report they were given no explanation of what happened, no opportunity to ask questions, and no acknowledgment of the death beyond informal word of mouth. “The first thing the union does,” one worker said, “is take people off the clock. That’s the first thing they care about. It’s like we’re just numbers.”
Neither the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) nor the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) has issued a statement regarding the death at the Morgan facility. This silence mirrors the response to recent deaths in Michigan and Georgia, where union officials called for investigations to be handled by USPS management and OSHA, institutions workers say have repeatedly failed to protect them.
In its statement, the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee called on postal workers nationwide to come forward with information on workplace deaths and unsafe conditions, warning that management and the union bureaucracy are seeking to “sweep these horrific deaths under the rug.” The committee stressed that only an independent worker-led inquiry can establish the facts, determine responsibility and prevent further loss of life.
The limited information currently available about the death at the Morgan facility—no confirmed name, no public timeline, no medical findings and no explanation of working conditions—raises urgent unanswered questions. Why did a postal worker with nearly three decades of service die overnight near an APPS operation? What conditions prevailed on the shop floor that night? What emergency protocols were in place? And why have postal workers been left to piece together the facts themselves?
As with the deaths in Michigan and Georgia, the lack of transparency surrounding the incident at Morgan underscores the need for postal workers to speak out collectively, document conditions and participate in a worker-led investigation independent of USPS management and the union apparatus.
Postal workers with information about this death or other unsafe conditions are urged to come forward and contact the World Socialist Web Site and the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee.
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