APWU Learns of Ricin Incident Through Media Reports

APWU officers learned through the news media on April 16 that a letter that may have been contaminated with a deadly poison had been found in the mail

Preliminary tests performed at the Maryland mail facility where the letter was found were positive for ricin, according to published reports. Additional tests will be performed at an FBI laboratory, with results expected within 24-48 hours. The letter was addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).

Many hours after the story had been widely reported by the media, APWU President Guffey received a message from postal officials about the incident, along with a copy of a Stand-Up Talk management plans to give employees in Southern Maryland, as well as at the V Street facility in Washington DC where government mail is handled, and in Memphis TN, where the letter was postmarked. (Mail from northern Mississippi is processed in Memphis.)

Although the Stand-Up Talk says, “We have no reason to believe that any Postal employees are at risk from handling the suspect letter as it passed through the mail stream from Memphis, Tennessee to Washington, D.C.,” the scientific basis for that assertion is unclear, Guffey said.

“It is unacceptable that postal officials did not contact the union immediately to notify us of this potentially deadly hazard,” he said. “Postal workers have learned through bitter experience of the dangers we face when poisons are sent through the mail.” Two postal employees died in 2001 when anthrax-laced letters were sent to senators and reporters.

“We intend to demand that this lapse be corrected,” Guffey said. “The safety of postal workers must be management’s first concern in an incident like this. Postal workers have a right to be informed immediately and to have the assistance of their union immediately to make sure that everything is being done that can be done to protect their safety!”

Facts About Ricin