CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — United States Postal Service letter carriers take pride in being on your street almost every day to make sure you’re taken care of.
On Sunday, they were there once again, but this time asking to receive the same.
Letter carriers across the country and state from Brooklyn to Cheektowaga rallied together to call on their fellow carriers to vote “no” on a tentative contract agreement reached between their union, the National Association of Letter Carriers (the union that represents mail carriers working in non-rural areas), and USPS.
The agreement reached in October offers a 1.3% annual raise not compounded over the next three years for 3.9% total in that term.
Workers say the agreement does not provide enough to account for inflation, adding that they no longer make a living wage.
“It really doesn't do anything to address the needs of the workers. It doesn't do anything to improve our working conditions,” said Steve Olender, a longtime letter carrier.
Olender has seen what it’s taken to get to where they are right now and says his main fear is that this new contract could be throwing that all away.
“We fought for decades for the right to quit working at 12 hours in a day or 60 in a week,” he said. “We have arbitrations, national-level arbitrations, that have set that in stone as an absolute limit. And in this agreement, our national leadership is trying to give that absolute limit away.”
That’s what they’re trying to get younger members to understand — and to know that voting “no” can still change that.
“Some of them might be afraid to reject the tentative agreement because they don't know what arbitration would bring for us, and nobody knows, to be honest, but it's hard to do worse than what we were offered,” Olender said.
The union’s members will vote on the tentative agreement over the next month. Ballots were sent Monday of last week and are due by Jan. 13.