If your mother-in-law's mail goes through the Waterbury or Wallingford post offices, she might not have received the birthday card you sent in time.

Apparently managers at the post office have been hiding mail, Ray Arcovio, president of the Waterbury area postal worker’s union, told the Waterbury Republican-American. And he wants to sincerely apologize.

Workers have been stuffing mail into closets and unused rooms at mail facilities in Waterbury and Wallingford because they don’t know how to keep up with such a high volume of mail, he told the newspaper.

"They're just pushing it aside for the next day," Arcovio told the paper. "We've had issues with them hiding the mail."

In an effort to cut back on costs, the postal service now transfers mail processing from Waterbury to Wallingford.

Arcovio says the problem is being handled.

"We have dealt with it and got the assurance it wouldn't happen again," he told the Republican American. "The employees who see it and are aware of it are fearful to speak out about it for fear of repercussions."

In some cases, even first-class letters were pushed aside because there weren't enough workers to handle it.

The USPS offers a different side of the story. There was one incident, said a spokeswoman. It was four months ago and the supervisor made a "poor judgment call about how to handle some late arriving mail and moved it out of the work area," Maureen Marion explained. Appropriate administrative action was taken, she said.

"To suggest this activity is routine is a falsehood," she added in a statement.

What's more, it didn't involve first class mail.