A joke turned into assembly line work: Mayor Michael Ludwig and cathedral priest Toni Faber showed that “pack’lschupfen” is not forgotten: the former holiday job postmen kept their promise to dive into the pre-Christmas flow of parcels in the Liesinger logistics center.
The training was quickly completed, as both men ‘rejoined’ the company: Mayor Michael Ludwig and cathedral priest Toni Faber, both with several years of summer job experience at the post office during their school and university years, came to help sort parcels in the logistics center Liesinger. Yet they were also told the standard phrase: “If you have any questions, please contact your superiors.”
Fun in the summer is followed by work in the winter
Both had jokingly offered to help in the summer when the new logistics center opened – and were now taken at their word by post manager Walter Oblin. Currently, up to 250,000 parcels are delivered in the center of Vienna every day. To address this problem, the Post Office joins forces every year to form “Team Christkind”: all Post Office administrative employees participate, including Post Office Manager Walter Oblin and his deputy Peter Umundum.
“Don’t give them the heavy packs”
With the ‘Team Christkind’ campaign, the postal service is consciously making a virtue of the plight of the mass of packages: Oblin had already worked four hours on the assembly line that day, and three hours in a branch the day before. “That feels good. It reminds you of the respect and humility this job requires. And as a board member you also make other decisions,” says Oblin. Ludwig and Faber also had a good time: “Don’t give them a heavy pack. “We want them to come back,” one postman whispered to another. But by then it was already too late.
Please don’t shovel
The mayor and the cathedral priest showed that they had forgotten nothing: do not lift from the cross, keep the package close to your body, if several packages collide, put the lightest package on top and the heaviest at the bottom – and please do not “with it moving the package,” he warned the head of the logistics center: “We are not cheating,” after all, we do not want to jeopardize our position as a postal carrier with the lowest damage rate in Europe.
Memories of “1036-1103” and the “Postler-Puch”
However, safety shoes and work gloves took some getting used to for Ludwig and Faber: they did not exist in their time. To this day, Ludwig still knows the location code of his previous package distribution location: 1036-1103. “A complete professional,” said one of the postmen approvingly. Faber, in turn, sentimentally recalled his days delivering telegrams as a “proud driver of a black MS 50,” the classic “Postler-Puch” moped.
The “temporary postal workers” agreed: Employee protections have made tremendous progress since their years at the post office. For example, Ludwig recalled loading packages in the garage while the truck’s diesel engines were running: “The air wasn’t really good. The next day you could still feel it in your lungs.’ Is everyone feeling better today? Both said no: the pressure is much greater today and that deserves “full respect”. “They really do it in the run-up to Christmas,” both paid tribute to their colleagues on the assembly line.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
