>On November 15, 2025, [Russell Scruggs Jr.](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/11/18/lpru-n18.html), a 44-year-old postal worker, died just weeks after starting his job at the USPS Palmetto Processing and Distribution Center in Georgia. Coworkers told the *World Socialist Web Site* that Scruggs suffered a head injury after falling and hitting his head on machinery in the plant. Coworkers also reported that he complained earlier in the day that he was not feeling well and was denied a request to go home. 

>**His death was one of four** [**at Palmetto**](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/06/06/dkwc-j06.html) **since 2024—this June, Demarcus Little also died at the facility. Workers say the facility has no cell phone service, leaving employees dependent on management to summon help, and that supervisors called security before calling an ambulance.**

>His death also came one week after Detroit postal worker [Nick Acker](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/11/15/tazn-n15.html) was killed on the job in a mail sorting machine accident.

>The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee, part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), has initiated an independent, rank-and-file [inquiry](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/11/20/ftmr-n20.html) into these deaths, carried out by workers themselves rather than USPS management or the American Postal Workers Union.

>**Workers are “humans, not machines”**

>Barbara Scruggs, Russell’s ex-wife of seven years and mother of three of his children, spoke with the WSWS in support of the IWA-RFC’s independent inquiry and is encouraging Russell’s coworkers from Palmetto to come forward with any information.

>“Russell was a hard worker, a great father, really loved his daughters, always provided for them and always provided for the household. He was just a really great person with a big, big heart,” she said. “Russell would give you the shirt off his back. He wanted to help everyone. He wanted everybody to live comfortably. He really loved his children and wanted to make sure they had everything they needed. And while we did separate, he always wanted to make sure that I wasn’t struggling to take care of them by myself. He still wanted to make sure that I was good and that they were good. Everybody loved him. He was always smiling, always laughing, just a hard worker. I remember at one point he had three different jobs just because he didn’t want me working while I was pregnant.”

>...

>She and Russell’s family found out that he’d requested to go home but was not allowed to leave. His coworkers told his family that the post office often discourages absences to keep the mail running constantly. “I just think it’s very careless,” Barbara said. “If someone isn’t feeling well, you don’t know what they have going on, you don’t know their condition, and what happened to Russell could be the result. If people aren’t feeling well, they should be allowed to go home. It’s their right. They shouldn’t be made to stay and make sure the job’s done. They should view them as humans, not machines.

>...

>Barbara still has not been called by USPS, OSHA or the APWU. “I have not been contacted, no nothing. It was like, ‘Okay, he lost his life,’ and that was it. They \[USPS\] were not really caring about who he left behind, just not caring about him as a person at all. Even the steps they took after him falling, I just heard it wasn’t good. A couple people who witnessed it were encouraged to just ‘Go back to work, go clock in.’

>“Of course, if people are walking over a dead body, it’s going to be traumatizing. I think that was the most heartbreaking part. When I got that call, I was thinking how bad it was, but then when I read the rest of the story in the article, I was like, ‘Oh my god, is this real?’ It just really angered me. I was thinking, ‘Could he have been saved?’”

>**After Demarcus Little’s death, workers told the WSWS that a few landlines were installed inside the facility, and that voluntary medical training was offered to postal workers, which is not sufficient to prevent further deaths.** “It’s really sad that they’re hardly going to take any precautions and make sure it doesn’t happen again. They have no plans on making it a better environment. I heard they got a couple of phones installed, but do they even work?”

>...

>“One of his children, seven, is too young to fully understand, but she knows he’s gone. They’ve had to go through three birthdays and Christmas without him. Russell’s birthday was in May, so we did celebrate it. They couldn’t sing happy birthday because it was just too much for them, but we did have a birthday cake and blow out the candles and got some pictures which they have on their nightstand. It’s just really hard. They’re still dealing with it. I’m still dealing with it because it’s so unexpected—you just never think in a million years this would happen. My daughter even asked, ‘Why my dad?’”

>She made a final appeal for Palmetto workers to get in touch with the WSWS and to support the independent inquiry. “Please don’t be scared to talk, to come forward. This is someone’s life. He left children behind, and we just want answers. We want to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”



Postal worker Russell Scruggs Jr.’s ex-wife speaks out, backs call for rank-and-file inquiry into postal deaths