
Issue No 117		26 October 2001

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International

Viral Attack

Postal unions in the USA are mobilizing to protect their members from the widening repercussions of an apparent bio-terrorist attack.

Anthrax-laced letters aimed at political leaders and media outlets in the U.S. have victimized members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU). The three unions have joined a task force organized by the U.S. Postal Service, the Centers for Disease Control and other public health agencies to contain the threat posed by anthrax in the U.S. mail. The task force meets each morning and conducts a teleconference each afternoon to share information and plan actions to respond to the crisis.

Two APWU members employed by the Washington, D.C. Post Office have died due to anthrax inhalation while two others are hospitalized for the same illness in nearby Virginia. Public health officials are monitoring at least 14 other D.C. postal workers who were also exposed to anthrax - two have reportedly been hospitalized in suburban Maryland pending tests for anthrax infection. All the affected employees in the Washington area work in the same Capitol Hill mail processing facility, a plant that handles the mail for members of the U.S. Congress and much of the executive branch of the U.S. government, including the White House. A letter directed to Senator Tom Daschle is thought to be the source of the anthrax, but authorities have not ruled out the possibility that other tainted letters are involved.

Meanwhile, a mail handler in Trenton, New Jersey - where all the known anthrax-laced letters were posted - has taken ill as a result of inhaled anthrax. And two letter carriers, one in New Jersey and one in Florida, have contracted the less serious skin form of anthrax infection. All infected workers are being treated with antibiotics.

After a regrettable weeklong delay, the USPS closed the contaminated facilities in Washington, D.C. and New Jersey and arranged to have all workers tested for anthrax exposure and treated with antibiotics as a preventative measure. All 6,000 workers in Washington, D.C., including the workers in all 36 branch post offices in the city, are being tested and given drugs to prevent infection. Some 10,000 workers in New Jersey and New York are being similarly treated.

The union-management-government task force has taken a number of steps to protect postal employees. Protective gloves and masks as well as barrier creams have been made available to postal workers who desire them. Instructions on how to handle suspicious mail have been distributed. New methods for cleaning automated mail sorting machines have been implemented to prevent the inadvertent spread of anthrax spores - officials fear that air hoses used to clean dust and residue from OCR sorters mail have played a role in the inhalation of the anthrax in Washington.

Although mail-sorting activities in Trenton and Washington D.C. have had to be shifted to surrounding facilities, normal postal operations and delivery are continuing throughout the country. And while there is no evidence that the nation's mail poses a general health risk to the public, there is growing fear among Americans about the safety of the 670 million letters and packages they receive each day from the Postal Service. In response, the USPS is mailing a postcard on the issue to every American household this week. It has also launched a crash investigation of various options for sanitizing the mail using irradiation technologies. President George W. Bush pledged on 23 October to provide $175 million to the USPS toward the latter effort.

The anthrax crisis adds to the difficulties facing the U.S. postal affiliates following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The negative economic impact of the attacks on the U.S. economy has hit the USPS particularly hard. Mail volumes dropped by more than 10 percent in the weeks after 11 September, resulting in a loss of $300 - $400 million in revenues, while transport expenses soared after new security rules limited the use of commercial airlines to haul mail. All three postal unions were in various stages of collective bargaining with the Postal Service at the time of the first attacks. The anthrax crisis only complicates matters further.

UNI affiliates interested in obtaining information on how the unions are responding to the anthrax crisis are directed to the unions' websites: http://www.apwu.org, http://www.nalc.org, and http://www.npmhu.org. The website of the U.S. Postal Service also provides up-to-date information on the crisis (http://www.usps.com/news/2001/press/serviceupdates.htm).

Information on the U.S. anthrax attack and on how to deal with anthrax is available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (http://www.bt.cdc.gov) and from the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/emc-documents/zoonoses/whoemczdi986c.html). For more information contact mailto:[email protected]

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  Issue 117 contents

Interview: Brothers In Arms
Labour historian Marilyn Dodkin explains how she exposed ASIO ties with Labor Council's Cold War leadership.

Politics: Defending the Faith
Launching 'Brothers', Premier Bob Carr gave his own take on the allegations that union leaders worked with security agencies during the Cold War.

History: Surviving the Split
In this extract from 'Brothers' Marilyn Dodkin, looks at the manouverings around the establishment of the DLP.

International: Viral Attack
Postal unions in the USA are mobilizing to protect their members from the widening repercussions of an apparent bio-terrorist attack.

Unions: A Living Wage
The ACTU this week unveiled its claim for the 2002 Living Wage Case. Here's what they'll be arguing.

Campaign Diary: Week Three: Wave Them Goodbye
In a week when our boys and girls went off to war, Labor fought a desperate battle to fight the election on the home front.

Human Rights: Colombia's 'Dirty War' Against Unions
It might be tough being an organiser in Australia under the Howard Government, but spare a thought for Colombian trade unionists.

Review: Red Rag Unfurls
Ian Syson is an upfront, knockabout bloke. He heads up a new, small, independent publishing outfit called Red Rag Publications.

Satire: New Hope for Labor: Mackerras Tips Liberal Win
The electoral hopes of the Labor party have revived dramatically, after the perennially unreliable analyst Malcolm Mackerras forecast a huge victory for the Liberals.

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