Letter carriers finally have a new union contract at the U.S. Postal Service. But they didn’t get to vote on it. After they voted down a three-year tentative agreement between National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and USPS in January by 71%, the two sides agreed to submit to an expedited form of binding arbitration to decide terms of the contract. The previous agreement expired May 20, 2023.
After mediation with both sides March 17, arbitrator Dennis Nolan decided March 21 on the terms of a three-year collective bargaining agreement. Its terms cover over 200,000 city letter carriers nationwide.
Union leaders say it contains the largest annual general wage increases since the agreement reached in 2006. The contract includes two cost-of-living adjustments a year, plus full retroactive pay for hours worked during the two years since the previous agreement ended.
NALC had pointed to big raises UPS workers got in their most recent Teamsters contract. In his decision, Nolan said the UPS contract wasn’t relevant. But he agreed that UPS drivers earn more than city letter carriers and that UPS is the best private sector comparator to USPS.
Under the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, wages are supposed to be comparable to similar private sector workers. But right now, they’re not comparable, at least for new hires. Evidence submitted to the arbitrator showed that most new hires lag 5.7% behind newly hired FedEx delivery workers, and 13.9% less than newly hired Amazon delivery workers.
“After decades earning more than the average American worker, city letter carriers now earn less,” Nolan wrote.
Entry-level wage were so low in fact that from 2021 to 2023, USPS received no applicants for nearly a quarter of the open positions it posted.
USPS disparity with private sector delivery workers laid the groundwork for the arbitrator to decide on raises meant to catch up with inflation.
The arbitrator did not agree with the union demand for an end to a two-tier pay system however. Currently a full-time city letter carriers hired after 2013 start at about $46,000 and top out at about $75,000. Carriers hired before then top out about the same, but started at a much higher salary, the equivalent of about $60,000. And USPS has been preferring to hire part-time when it can, where wages can start at as low as about $22 an hour and rise over many years to $37.
Nolan also increased the annual uniform allowance. Letter carriers are required to wear a uniform, but must purchase it through an approved vendor. One of the mutual aid activities of the union is maintaining a uniform lending program while new hires get on their feet financially. Under the new agreement, the annual uniform allowance will increase from $499 to $549 by the end of the contract.
This article is full of crap. Sorry for the American people that makes us proud to do our jobs. The postal union has agreed to give us a crap raise but still wants to pretend that they are fighting for more. We don’t get paid well and that’s how they want to really keep it. Give us one true non contract day to strike and not have our union present and america would really give us a proper wage. The American citizens would back us proudly. Not the union, or Congress.