The tentative agreement between the US Postal Service (USPS) and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) appears to be headed for defeat. The rejection of the agreement would reflect not only the fighting mood among 205,000 active letter carriers, but also the provocative character of the tentative agreement itself.
A memo purporting to be from Deputy Postmaster General Doug A. Tulino that has been shared on Reddit indicates that NALC informed USPS that its members were likely to reject the tentative agreement. Such rejections have been rare at USPS in recent decades.
NALC President Brian Renfroe called the document “fake” in a press release. Regardless of the document’s authenticity, there is widespread opposition to the tentative agreement among letter carriers.
The agreement, which covers the period from 2023 through 2026, provoked outrage when it was announced in October, after almost two years of negotiations. It includes insulting annual raises of 1.3 percent, which constitute cuts to real pay when inflation is factored in. In addition, the agreement includes substandard cost-of-living adjustments and does nothing to block the major restructuring program called Delivering for America.
