Shane Brennan, Delaware News Journal
Sat, November 9, 2024
Postal workers in Wilmington are not in love with their new labor agreement between the National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service.
Some of them will be rallying in Rodney Square in Wilmington on Veterans Day and voting "no" on the ratification of the contract. Those organizing the rally said the proposed wage raise and reduction of "office time" and routes hurt the entire workforce.
The contract gives a raise of 1.3% to city carriers every year in November through 2025. Victor Poindexter, one of the letter carriers organizing Monday's rally, says he is uniting with other NALC members in Wilmington to demand a bigger raise in the contract.
Career letter carriers will also receive cost-of-living adjustments through the term of the contract, should it be ratified. The adjustments are $978 in August 2023 and September 2024 and $353 in March 2024. These will be retroactively paid if ratified. Future payments are to be determined by changes in the consumer price index.
"We are stepping up and speaking out about this contract; it's not good," he said. "It's gonna be hard for us to feed our families with 1.3%."
In a statement, NALC said it has been holding informational sessions before the vote to ratify the contract.
"Prior to the nationwide ratification vote on the contract, NALC leaders are holding informational briefings with letter carriers around the country, who will then make their own decisions. We do not engage in debates through the media," the statement from NALC said.
The contract also features the addition and increased maintenance of air-conditioned letter-carrying vehicles.
New contract up for a ratification vote
The contract was recently negotiated by the top brass of the NALC. According to a release on the union's website, the contract took around 20 months to negotiate.
"We are pleased to reach a fair agreement that rewards our members for their contributions to the Postal Service and their service to the American people,” NALC president Brian Renfroe said on the website.
The next steps for the contract is ratification by a vote of the union members. Poindexter, Stacey Gilbert and Tyrell Thomas all said they are voting against the contract.
The Cool Down
"I don't think I've talked to one person that's for the contract," Gilbert said.
She has been a letter carrier for three years, and the contract does benefit her, she said, but will not benefit her later down the line.
Ballots are being sent state by state to union members now.
Rally on Veterans Day seeks unity between local union chapters
It's illegal for USPS workers to strike. So, this upcoming rally is held on a federal holiday with the hope of getting the wheels turning on a more widespread and united response to the contract.
"For a long time, like the union hasn't really stood sturdy," Poindexter said. "So like at this point where we at now, like it took, it took us younger generation to step up and say, you know, we deserve, we earn more."
They said there is a generational divide at play with the new contracts. Thomas has been a letter carrier for more than a decade, and he thinks the contract isn't good enough for people like Poindexter and Gilbert, who have worked for five and three years, respectively.
Another problem they have with the contract is the decreased office time, which is time to sort mail and packages before heading out for deliveries. They said they would have 13 fewer minutes to do that before hitting the road. They said they would have about a half an hour to sort and case mail for delivery.
"We gotta do it fast, so they trying to rush us to the streets," Gilbert said.
The goal of Monday's rally is to get the attention of the national union and encourage similar steps from other local chapters of NALC around Delaware, Philadelphia, New Jersey and beyond. Poindexter said he has seen other unions demand higher wage increases than the 1.3% proposed by the contract.
He gave the example of SEPTA workers proposing a 10% wage increase, which has not been agreed to by SEPTA. He said their jobs are just as dangerous, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're outside, rain, sleep, everything; we dealing with customers during the pandemic, we was out here," Thomas said. "We had carriers die like, Where's, where's our stuff at? We got nothing in this deal."
Monday's rally could feature carriers from not just Wilmington, but Newark as well as Chichester, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, Thomas said. The rally is the first step in uniting the local NALC chapters to dispute the contract.
"This is sparking the fire," Poindexter said. "Hopefully it'll spread. And then all of the other mail carriers, Philly, Jersey, Delaware, New York, all the way through the East Coast, all get on the same page, and we try to maneuver and put the right people in position so we could get, get fed, get paid."
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