BEMIDJI — Dennis Nelson had wanted to see the fight for better working conditions at the Bemidji Post Office to the end, but after weeks of arduous 12-hour shifts and an increasingly toxic and hostile work environment, even he’s hit a breaking point.
Nelson, who helped organize the initial picket by rural carriers in November that led to national attention, officially turned in his resignation on Thursday after 20 years.
“I hate leaving it, I hate not being a part of it anymore. I started this fight, and I hate not seeing it to the end,” he said.
But he hit the point of no return, just like seven of his coworkers before him. For Nelson, it came after he had been delivering packages all morning, namely from Amazon, and had returned to the post office to finally do a run of regular mail.