‘Pissed off’: Rank-and-file Letter Carriers insulted by USPS’ pay offer

Letter Carriers demonstrate for a fair contract. | Chris Pennock / via NALC Branch 9 (Facebook)

“Trust me—letter carriers are PISSED OFF right now,” Marc Mancini, a letter carrier and shop steward out of Pittsburgh told People’s World.

More than 500 days after the expiration of their collective bargaining agreement, the nation’s 200,000 city letter carriers, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers, will begin voting next month on a new tentative agreement.

The problem: A general pay raise of 1.3% in each year of the contract.

Rank-and-file letter carriers are expressing their disappointment with the tentative agreement’s wage provisions. The agreement was “insulting,” Mancini said.

The bulk of public comment from current letter carriers apparently shares this perspective, with hundreds of letter carriers online calling for rejection of the proposed settlement, and few supportive voices to be found. Local officers and several members of the union’s national executive board also released statements recommending a “no” vote.

A packed meeting in Minneapolis on Oct. 26 drew over 80 carriers, according to carrier Aaron Hutchison, who was interviewed by phone. “We are going to be aggressive and proactive” in campaigning against the small hike,” he said. “Once everyone saw the numbers, the anger and the upset were almost instantaneous.”

The contract took more than two years to bargain, but reaching it also avoided arbitration, union President Brian Renfroe said. That didn’t sit well in the Twin Cities, Hutchison replied. The carriers there figured that in an attempt to win the arbitration, the USPS would sweeten its offer.

Renfroe is recommending the tentative agreement, presented Oct. 18, calling it “a fair agreement that rewards our members for their contributions to the Postal Service and their service to the American people.”

The union is sponsoring four “rap sessions” around the country to brief local leaders and members on the tentative agreement:  Oct. 27 in Houston, Oct. 29 in San Francisco, Oct. 31 in Minneapolis, and Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C.

The tentative agreement includes 1.3% annual pay raises across the board and a series of partial cost-of-living adjustments throughout the duration of the contract. For those at the top and bottom of the seniority scale, the contract also includes additional raises: $1,000 for the “Step P” veterans at the top of the pay scale and 1% per year for City Carrier Assistants (CCAs), the letter carrier’s “pre-career” job classification.

CCAs start as low as $18.51/hour and don’t have the same scheduling guarantees as career employees. They are often overworked by postal management. Top-tier earners would make slightly over $81,000 immediately under the new proposed scale, and nearly $84,000 by the end of 2026.

The proposed contract also curtails the use of compulsory overtime and streamlines penalty payments for carriers who choose to put in extra hours. The postal workforce suffers from chronic understaffing and overwork in many districts, so these provisions could put the brakes on a crisis of mandatory overtime.

Other union wins in the tentative agreement include expanded bereavement leave, plus the retention of no-layoff and no-subcontracting provisions. A major demand of letter carriers, who work outdoors in an era of rising temperatures, is air-conditioned vehicles. In the tentative agreement, management commits to “make every effort” to procure those air-conditioned vehicles.

NALC Council member Mike Caref, who is the National Business Agent for the union’s Illinois district,  is convinced the workers could do better if the pact went to arbitration. Earlier this year he announced plans to challenge Renfroe for national union leadership in the union’s 2026 election.

A two-tier wage system divides workforce

While the Letter Carriers had vowed in their August convention to end the two-tier system, the proposed contract leaves it in place, while shortening the duration of the second tier. Without the upfront bonuses that the most and least senior workers stand to gain from the agreement, some mid-seniority workers on the lower tier feel left out.

Nicholas Hubert, a Denver letter carrier, told People’s World: “We were told before negotiations started that this contract would be going back to one table. As a table two employee, I have felt like a second-rate employee.”

Hubert said that those who had been hired before the two table system got paid better to start. He said it used to be a great way to start a career and not just a job.

“With the CCA [classification retained] and 2 tables, it has become just a job for a few years and then people move on.” Under the tentative agreement, City Carrier Assistants, the “second tier” on the two-tier pay scale, still will not get cost of living increases.

Working as a letter carrier was previously a coveted career, but the Postal Service workforce has suffered from “massive” turnover in recent years under the non-career model. This was compounded by the difficult working conditions these essential workers faced during the pandemic.

“Folks have no idea how much abuse and harassment we get from management on the workroom floor, and we can’t even say we get paid well enough to put up with it,” said Pittsburg NALC shop steward Mancini.

Drive to privatize

Even more than the pandemic, a drive to privatization has undermined the role of the postal service and postal workers’ conditions. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was handpicked by Donald Trump’s appointees to the Postal Board of Governors.

Under DeJoy’s leadership, postal management has carried out deep service cuts and price increases as part of a 10-year “Delivering for America” restructuring plan. Critics claim the plan aims to eliminate thousands of jobs, gut the service, and ultimately deliver postal privatization as the public blames the federal postal service for deteriorating service.

With national officers of the union and broad swathes of the workforce publicly opposed to the tentative agreement, rejection by the membership could be in the cards, just as workers at Boeing rejected their employer’s latest offer earlier this month. Letter carriers have not voted down a tentative agreement since 1977.

If rejected, the contract may be brought before an arbitration panel made up of three members – one selected by the union, one selected by management, and one “neutral,” agreed on by both.

Some voices inside the union fear that arbitration could deliver a worse deal and deprive workers of their power to ratify or reject; others point out that the union’s biggest wage gains in historical contract cycles have resulted from arbitration victories and that public pressure can be brought on the Arbitration Board.

No right to strike

While in the private sector, the UPS Teamsters and ILA dockworkers recently scored record wage gains, legal restrictions undermine the letter carriers’ bargaining position.

First and foremost, the federal government’s longstanding ban on postal strikes makes any work stoppage a risky maneuver. While a 1970 wildcat did overcome Nixon’s deployment of the National Guard to break that strike, additional work stoppages at the end of the ’70s were crushed by injunctions.

With strike action off the table, letter carriers have relied on binding arbitration to secure concessions from management in previous contract cycles.

Ratification ballots for the new contract are due to arrive by mail at letter carrier’s homes in mid-November. The union’s constitution requires a simple majority vote of the membership to adopt a tentative agreement.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Emilio Avelar

Emilio Avelar writes from Denver, Colorado.

Mark Gruenberg

Award-winning journalist Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People's World. He is also the editor of the union news service Press Associates Inc. (PAI). Known for his reporting skills, sharp wit, and voluminous knowledge of history, Mark is a compassionate interviewer but tough when going after big corporations and their billionaire owners.