In late October, local United Postal Service letter carriers rallied in Downtown Evansville, seeking better wages and working conditions in a new contract.
They had received a tentative agreement on October 18. The rally was October 27.
Mid November, they're still waiting on paper ballots to vote for, or against the contract.
At the rally, multiple speakers expressed disappointment with the the tentative agreement struck with their union, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), and the USPS.
Letter Carrier Austin Seibert said discussions are still happening regarding the contract, though he's seen frustrations mount at informational sessions.
“We want a fair contract,” he said. “The Letter Carriers have recently been proposed with a tentative agreement with a whole total of a 3.9-percent raise over the course of three years, which is only a 1.3 percent raise every year, which, if you even do the math, that's less than $50 cents an hour.”
He said current base pay for entry level workers is $19.20 an hour — which they’d also like to see improved.
That raise is retroactive, according to the Federal News Network. It runs from May 20, 2023, through Nov. 7, 2026, continuing through the length of the contract.
Aside from a larger raise, they would also like to see the USPS follow contractual obligations in keeping under 12 working hours.
At the rally, union members were urged to vote “no” on the contract. Seibert said he sees a lot of negativity regarding the contract today, and some may prefer to send the contract to arbitration.
He said the timeline for such a vote is loose. The 200,000 members will receive a paper ballot in the mail for the vote, possibly early December.
“If there is not a better contract that is struck, there is going to be a mass exodus of employees," he said. "Especially table two employees that can't live off this wage, and they are going to leave the Postal Service, leaving a lot worse situation than we have now.”
In response to the rallies, the USPS said:
“We respect our employees’ rights to express their opinions and participate in informational picketing while off the clock. Through our Delivering for America investments, we have built capacity into our processing, logistics, and delivery infrastructure to meet customers’ evolving mail and package needs.
We are executing on strategies to pull together the people, technology, transportation, equipment, and facilities into a well-integrated and streamlined mail and package network. We have worked hard in past 3 years to stabilize our workforce. We have converted more than 191,000 pre-career employees to career status since January 2021.”
The National Association of Letter Carriers in a statement said:
“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.”
Also looming in the background are delays in deliveries, potentially due to the aforementioned Delivering for America plan, which diverts much local sorting to a facility in Louisville, Kentucky. Letter carriers expressed frustration at those delays.
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