US Postal Workers

Letter Carriers Are Organizing Against An Insulting 1.3 Percent Raise

November 16, 2024 Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. Resist! Contract Negotiations, Unions, US Postal Workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

A wave of anger is cresting at post offices across the country. Letter carriers are looking at the big raises that other union members have won—38 percent over four years at Boeing, 62 percent in six years at the East Coast ports, $7.50 in five years at UPS. They’re comparing those gains to the tentative agreement their president handed them in October: 1.3 percent a year for three years. “It doesn’t account for everything we went through with Covid,” said Saqia Talbert, a letter carrier in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “We were massively understaffed, and we were working 70 to 80 hours a week, every week, for two years straight.”

Fellow Letter Carriers, Stand Together, Vote No On Sellout Contract!

October 25, 2024 Rob Darakjian, Labor Notes. Organize! NALC, Unions, US Postal Service, US Postal Workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

City letter carriers finally got to see the headlines of the tentative agreement Letter Carriers (NALC) President Brian Renfroe has negotiated—after more than 500 days of working without a contract and being kept completely in the dark about the state of bargaining. In that time, a groundswell of enthusiasm and organizing for “Open Bargaining”—the right to be informed about the real state of negotiations—has swept through the union and became the Build a Fighting NALC movement. More than 40 union branches and a few state associations passed resolutions calling for this democratic right.

Letter Carriers Convention Shapes Up To Be Open Bargaining Showdown

July 30, 2024 Tim Bash, Labor Notes. Strategize! Collective bargaining, Transparency, Unions, US Postal Workers

City letter carriers have been working without a contract for more than 400 days, and leaders of the Letter Carriers (NALC) still refuse to provide any substantive updates from bargaining. As rank-and-file anger boils over, a new group called Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) is building momentum to demand a stronger and more transparent contract fight next time. We’re bringing an “Open Bargaining” resolution to the national convention, August 5-9 in Boston. As of this writing, two NALC state associations and 44 branches across the country have passed the resolution to show their support. There was a time when the NALC, under the leadership of President Vince Sombrotto (1978-2002), used to engage in contract campaigns, hold rallies, make its demands public, and keep members informed of contract progress.

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