Today, NALC participated in the House Congressional Postal Service Caucus’s second stakeholder roundtable, which served as a follow-up to the first labor-focused roundtable in March that the union also took part in. NALC Chief of Staff Kori Blalock participated, bringing strategic guidance on the ways Congress can take action to support the nation’s letter carriers, who are central to a strong, financially independent Postal Service network now and into the future.
The Postal Caucus chairs, Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) and Jack Bergman (R-MI), were joined by fellow caucus members Reps. Maggie Goodlander (D-RI) and Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), who asked panelists to discuss the role of the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), the Delivering for America plan, and most importantly, the Postal Service’s long-term outlook.
While the first roundtable was focused on labor priorities, this second roundtable comprised other stakeholders such as those from the PRC, Easypost, Envelope Manufacturers, PostCom, C21 Postal Coalition and Postal Supervisors to discuss their views.
During the panel, Blalock emphasized the shared goal of all stakeholders in working to ensure a strong service-oriented postal network that serves 170 million delivery points six—and sometime seven—days a week. NALC strongly emphasized the direct correlation between service and financial stability, highlighting that protecting service begins with investing in the Postal Service’s infrastructure—namely letter carriers and postal employees, vehicles and technology. NALC’s central focus was for stakeholders to work together on viable, bipartisan reforms, including a better investment strategy for USPS retiree health and pension funds, increasing the agency’s borrowing authority and fairly recalculating USPS’s Civil Service Retirement System pension obligations.
“If you want service to get better, we must collectively focus on legislation to address these core issues,” Blalock said.
Blalock emphasized that NALC appreciates every opportunity to engage in these important conversations and is committed to continue leading the fight to pass meaningful, bipartisan financial reforms and will work with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the best path forward.
We can sure thank Blalock for toeing the party line here and syncing with all of the USPS’S wish list. This exposes a major problem with the NALC and demonstrates why there is a call for change in the union. Every item on this wish list is all well and good, but none of them will fix what ails the USPS in the long term. The ability to borrow more, which isn’t going to happen, investing in different vehicles, and all the rest are back end items that are only temporary band aids. The USPS needs to bring in what it spends, period. Everyone knows management numbers must be cut significantly and Saturday delivery should be curtailed, but you won’t hear the NALC say it; they’re in bed with management.Service is poor because of management decisions and terrible hiring practices. Does anyone really believe service will improve if the USPS is allowed to borrow more or invest differently? The OIG, and thank God for them, releases never ending reports of failure after failure due to management and the NALC still saddles right up next to them, never calling them out for anything meaningful. Congress should earmark funds to support universal service, but not before management ranks are cut.
I really feel for the members of the NALC. The union is trying to portray this as legitimate negotiations, when in fact and just like last time, the USPS is not bargaining in good faith. Other unions are also finding out that the USPS has no intention of negotiating anything. They might agree to some give backs, but that’s about it. Unfortunately the NALC won’t call them out. Either this sham of a negotiating process is broken or the NALC leadership needs a different approach; maybe new leadership will correct this.