Mail carriers reach tentative contract with USPS that includes pay raises and air-conditioned trucks

DAVID SHARP and NICK PERRY
Updated Sat, October 19, 2024 

FILE - The U.S. Postal Service's next-generation delivery vehicle, left, is displayed as one new battery electric delivery trucks leaves the Kokomo Sorting and Delivery Center in Kokomo, Ind., Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)


Some 200,000 mail carriers have reached a tentative contract deal with the U.S. Postal Service that includes backdated pay raises and a promise to provide workers with air-conditioned trucks.

The new agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members, runs through November 2026. Letter carriers have been working without a new contract since their old one expired in May 2023. Since then they have continued working under the terms of the old contract.

Both the union and the Postal Service welcomed the agreement, which was announced Friday.


“Both sides didn’t get everything they wanted. But by bargaining in good faith, we ended with an agreement that meets our goals and rewards our members,” Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told The Associated Press. “To make that happen, the Postal Service had to recognize the contributions of members to the Postal Service and the American people.”

Among other improvements, the deal increases the top pay and reduces the amount of time it takes new workers to reach that level, Renfroe said. He credited Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his deputy for bargaining in good faith throughout the arduous process.

The Postal Service said the agreement supported its 10-year “Delivering for America” mission to modernize operations and adapt to changing customer needs.

“This is a fair and responsible agreement that serves the best interest of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service,” said Doug Tulino, the deputy postmaster general and chief human resources officer.

As part of the agreement, all city carriers will get three annual pay increases of 1.3% each by 2025, some of which will be paid retroactively from Nov. 2023. Workers will also receive retroactive and future cost-of-living adjustments.

There is also a commitment from the Postal Service to “make every effort” to provide mail trucks with air-conditioning.

In the summer the Postal Service began rolling out its new electric delivery vehicles, which come equipped with air-conditioning. While the trucks won't win any beauty contests, they did get rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.

Within a few years, the new fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.

Under the tentative contract agreement, the Postal Service must discuss with the union any plans to buy new mail trucks that don’t have air-conditioning.

This is the second contract negotiated since DeJoy was appointed in 2020. It is expected to take several weeks for union members to ratify it.

Rural mail carriers are not covered by the contract because they are represented by a different union.

Up next

‘What is the Logic Behind This?’: Watch Surreal Footage of Trump Working at McDonald’s

Sean Craig

Sun, October 20, 2024 at 1:28 PM MDT·2 min read

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Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump serves food at a McDonalds restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania on Oct. 20, 2024.

Former President Donald Trump made good on his promise to work a shift at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s Sunday, dropping fries into an oil fryer and handing Secret Service-screened customers their orders through a drive through window in perhaps the most bizarre publicity stunt of the 2024 election cycle.

“What is the logic behind this?” asked MSNBC host Alex Witt, as footage of Trump at a franchise in Feasterville-Trevose, north of Philadelphia, was played. “I mean we know the guy likes Big Macs and Filet-O-Fish, but what’s this about?”

“There’s no logic to it, it’s a stunt,” said her guest, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). “He, as you know, appears to be not well and he’s engaged in some really bizarre activities during this campaign.”

To Lee’s point, a day before his McDonald’s publicity stunt, Trump spent the first part of a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, talking about the late golf legend Arnold Palmer’s penis.

CNN aired footage of an employee kindly taking Trump through the steps to drop and cook an order of McDonald’s french fries. The Republican nominee for president wore what appeared to be a company-issued black apron with gold yellow straps, while his white collared shirt, red hair and red tie rounded out a suite of brand friendly colors.

“Just a bit of stunning video right there to kick off the day,” said CNN reporter Danny Freeman, after clips of Trump dropping fries and working the drive-thru aired.

As for the tortured logic of the stunt, Trump has, without any evidence, repeatedly accused Vice President Kamala Harris of lying about working at McDonald’s during a summer while she attended Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump serves food at a McDonalds restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania on Oct. 20, 2024.

Trump, who inherited family wealth and got his first job through his father’s company, does himself have a deep connection to the Golden arches: one of love. He has long spoken of his enjoyment of fast food, and on a visit to a McDonald’s franchise in Ohio last year told the staff, “I know this menu better than you do.”

When he attended a University of Alabama college football game last month he ordered a gut-busting spread of McDonald’s, Domino’s pizza and stadium hotdogs. Two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches with cheese was his order from the Golden Arches in that case.