After nearly two years of talks, the union for city letter carriers announced a poverty-level tentative agreement Saturday with the United States Postal Service, sparking a wave of outrage on social media.
According to a summary by National Association of Letter Carriers, the 42-month deal (2023 through 2026) contains pathetic 1.3 percent annual wage increases, in addition to substandard cost of living adjustments, continued hyper-exploitation and surveillance, and the continuation of a vast restructuring program aimed at privatizing USPS. NALC covers over 205,000 active and another 90,000 retired city letter carriers.
The wage proposal is especially provocative. After record-high inflation and other recent agreements for autoworkers, UPS and east coast dockworkers which all contained modest wage increases between 20 and 61 percent. Even these deals were sellouts, where wage increases acted as cover for mass, automation-driven job cuts.