The National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service have reached tentative agreement on a national labor contract, covering 213,000 active city letter carriers across America.|
NALC President Fredric V. Rolando issued the following statement after the NALC Executive Council unanimously recommended approval of the tentative settlement:
“I’d like to thank all the officers and staff who worked so hard to help reach this tentative National Agreement. Most importantly, I want to thank our members for their patience and steadfast solidarity during the long bargaining process – the strength and unity of our union has always been our most important asset in collective bargaining. Although we were fully prepared, if necessary, to fight for our interests in binding interest arbitration, I am very happy that our members will have a chance to make the final decision about this contract through the ratification process outlined in our union’s constitution. The Executive Council unanimously recommends ratification of this contract.”
The major features of the contract are summarized below. Full details about the tentative agreement, along with paycharts, other contractual changes and information about new and amended memorandum of understanding (MOUs), will be presented in the next NALC Bulletin and in the June issue of The Postal Record. They will also be distributed though the union’s electronic platforms in the days to come. All these communication channels will also be used to announce the members of the Ballot Committee (who will oversee the ratification vote); the timing and details of the ratification process; and the arrangements for the 2017 National Rap Session, a meeting that will be held in mid-June to educate branch leaders about the proposed contract so they can pass on information to their members before they cast ratification ballots.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS
HIGHLIGHTS OF TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
WITH THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
2016-2019 NATIONAL AGREEMENT
Term
The 2016 National Agreement will last 40 months, covering the period May 21, 2016, to Sept. 20, 2019.
General wage increases and pay upgrade
All letter carriers, career and non-career alike, will receive two wage increases and a pay upgrade resulting from a consolidation of the letter carrier pay grades as follows:
- 1.2 percent effective Nov. 26, 2016, paid retroactively.
- 1.3 percent effective Nov. 25, 2017.
- Carriers paid at the Grade 1 level will be upgraded to Grade 2, and all Grade 2 carriers will receive 2.1 percent additional compensation for all hours effective Nov. 24, 2018.
CCAs will receive additional wage increases of 1.0 percent on these three dates for a total of: 2.2 percent on Nov. 26, 2016 (paid retroactively); 2.3 percent on Nov. 25, 2017; and an additional 1.0 percent increase at the time of the upgrade, Nov. 24, 2018. These additional increases will be paid in lieu of COLAs for CCAs.
Cost-of-living adjustments for career letter carriers
All career letter carriers will receive seven COLAs based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) and using the existing COLA formula and the July 2014 CPI as the base month. The first two COLAs will be paid retroactively and the remaining five will be paid in the future as follows:
- The first COLA will be $21 annually effective Sept. 3, 2016, paid retroactively.
- The second COLA will be $333 annually effective March 4, 2017, paid retroactively.
- The third COLA will be effective in September 2017.
- The fourth COLA will be effective in March 2018.
- The fifth COLA will be effective in September 2018.
- The sixth COLA will be effective in March 2019.
- The seventh COLA will be effective in September 2019.
The COLAs will be applied to the two pay tables for career city carriers in the same manner used in the 2011 National Agreement.
Recently retired letter carriers
Letter carriers who have retired over the last several months will receive applicable retroactive general wage increases and COLAs. The Office of Personnel Management will also make any annuity adjustments made necessary by the retroactive increases.
Step increases for city carrier assistants
The tentative agreement would establish step increases for CCAs. In addition to the wage increases described above, CCAs will receive a 50 cents per hour raise after 12 weeks of service and an additional 50 cents per hour increase after an additional 40 weeks of service. These step increases will be paid retroactively to Nov. 26, 2016, for CCAs with paid hours since Nov. 26, 2016. For example, CCAs with 52 weeks of service as of Nov. 26, 2016, will get a $1.00 per hour raise, effective on that date and paid retroactively.
Step advancement for certain former transitional employees
Effective May 26, 2018, eligible former transitional employees (TEs) will be advanced in Table 2 of the letter carrier pay scale based on their length of service as TEs after Sept. 29, 2007. Such former TEs will be entitled to between one and four step increases as follows:
| Length of creditable TE service | Number of additional steps |
| 2 years but less than 3 years | 1 |
| 3 years but less than 4 years | 2 |
| 4 years but less than 5 years | 3 |
| 5 or more years | 4 |
For those eligible former TEs converted to career status prior to May 26, 2018, the step advancement will be effective on that date. For those converted thereafter, the step advancement will be effective upon conversion to career status. All employees eligible for step advancement will retain time-in-step credit.
Health insurance
In 2017, there is no change in the Postal Service’s share of premium costs for career letter carriers’ health insurance (76 percent of the weighted average Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) plan premium, capped at 79.25 percent of any given plan premium). Following the pattern of previous contracts, the Postal Service’s share will decline by a total of 3.0 percent over the term of the tentative agreement. The share will decrease to 74 percent in 2018 and to 73 percent in 2019. The maximum employer contribution for any given plan will be 77.25% in 2018 and 76.0% in 2019. Over the course of the entire contract, the Postal Service’s share for career letter carriers will remain higher than that paid by other federal agencies that participate in the FEHBP (72 percent of the average premium, capped at 75 percent for any given plan).
The bi-weekly impact of these Article 21 changes will depend on which plans carriers enroll in but will, in any case, represent a small fraction of the bi-weekly pay increases provided by Article 9 of the tentative agreement.
On health insurance for CCAs, the tentative contract maintains the Postal Service’s bi-weekly contribution of $125 toward self-only coverage in the USPS Non-career Health Plan, but it would significantly increase the Postal Service’s contribution toward self-plus-one and self-and-family coverage in that plan (now set at the same $125 bi-weekly contribution available for self-only coverage). In the initial year of CCA employment, the USPS will pay 65 percent of the premium costs. In the second year of CCA employment and beyond, the USPS share would rise to 75 percent of the total premium.
Job security protections for letter carriers
The no-layoff clause that protects letter carriers after six years of service as career employees is retained in the tentative agreement. In addition, prohibitions against contracting out city carrier work would be continued for the duration of the 2016-2019 contract, if the contract is ratified.
Joint Workplace Improvement Process
The tentative accord includes an MOU on improving workplace culture. The parties have agreed to establish a Joint Workplace Improvement Process to address a number of issues to provide safe, efficient work environments in which employees are treated with dignity and respect.
CCA complement and conversion to career status
Upon ratification, there would be a one-time conversion to career status for CCAs with relative standing date at least 30 months prior to the ratification date. The conversions would work as follows:
- In 200-workyear offices, eligible CCAs will be converted to full-time regular career status in their installation.
- In 125- and 100-workyear offices, eligible CCAs will be converted to part-time flexible career status in their installation, rather than waiting to convert to full-time career status as a CCA.
The parties have agreed to consider the possibility of another one-time conversion after one year.
Additionally, the parties have agreed to address situations where CCAs work in small offices with no clear path to a career opportunity.
There is no increase to the CCA employment caps in Article 7 of the Agreement or to the number of CCAs currently on the rolls. However, the Postal Service will maintain a percentage of the additional CCAs previously agreed to by the parties through a number of MOUs. These MOUs, which would continue in the tentative agreement, have provided additional career conversion opportunities for CCAs, about 47,000 to date. The vast majority of these CCAs did not have to serve probationary periods as career employees. The MOUs continue to include a weekly meeting to monitor appropriate staffing levels through career conversions and voluntary transfer requests.
CCA holidays
The tentative agreement provides for six paid holidays for CCAs.
CCA leave provisions in local agreements
The agreement requires the parties to negotiate choice and incidental leave provisions for CCAs during local implementation. It also establishes an alternate dispute resolution process for impasses related to CCA leave prior to arbitration.
Article 8 improvements
All overtime, regardless of whether such overtime was worked on a carrier’s own route, will count toward equitability for overtime desired list (ODL) carriers. Additionally, management will be required to post equitability totals weekly, rather than quarterly.
An MOU is incorporated into the agreement to continue to allow the local parties the option of developing a process that allows employees who transfer from another installation or are converted to full time following the signup period to place their names on either the ODL or the work assignment list. Existing agreements pursuant to previous versions of this MOU will remain in effect.
Source: Tentative National Agreement is reached | National Association of Letter Carriers AFL-CIO
Sometimes you have to look in the Mirror and realize I’m just a overpaid Newspaper Boy. Be thankful there not closing up the shop. And get back to work!
Male handlers rule! Wake me when there is a Overtime Call. I’ll be in the Breakroom if you need me!
a no vote from me
All senior carriers and anyone you can convince to vote NO should. This contract is a slap in face!!!!!!
It’s embarrassing is what it is. If members ratify contract future negotiations union bozos will bargain for peanuts again. Thinking that’s all it takes to make us happy
Decertify the crap NALC and bring in a real union…….Go Teamsters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1% while po mismanagement gets PFP bonus scam money, on top of inflated pay grades for low IQ morons who can not compete with UPS and FEDEX!
sure took them along time to negotiate what we normally get in our contracts. We always get the same 1% raise whether this company is losing or making $. That should be enough right there to tell you our contracts aren’t based on success of the PO at all. Just all political bs.
Yep. With the usual corresponding raise in insurance premiums more than offsetting the paltry raises.
Vote no !
You can bet the nalc execs are getting more than 1%.
Terrible nalc contract,vote no.
Agreed, no it is.
Improving workroom conditions?….ive been hearing this for 31 years!….baloney!!
To Ben the carrier disi-ng the CCAs: do YOU want to work every Sunday and holiday delivering Amazon packages? Didn’t think so. Maybe they are inexperienced, and trying to pay their mortgage, not stupid or accident prone. Especially since managers ride them and threaten and call in on days off
Give the incompetent Cca carrier a raise of twice the amount of the career carrier ..hold downs of routes that they can’t manage , mis deliveries , accidents at a rate of 10x the career carrier … reward a fool for not knowing his ass for a nbcbu box ..way to go fast Freddy ..one more contract and you have successfully sold the career carrier up the river …
4 billion dollar revenue in the last 3 years and Freddy can’t give the back. One OT the postal service a matching raise that the Cca Carrier got …..all career carriers dump the nalc and start a new union , one that rewards the hard working class with a reasonable increase , for those who carry the post office !!
been a shop steward been in the union 32 years, but sadly have to agree with u!
I’ll vote no but it will pass easily; u throw a few extra bucks at the folks and they will be all over it. Only once in 1978 did the members vote one down. This contract like previous ones does nothing to solve the core issues facing city carriers. We all know what those are. Instead it pays lip service by once again establishing a joint committee to look into workplace issues.
Looks like a big BBC coming for carriers. 🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆
This contract is a major disgrace to all the hardworking letter carriers for this agency. Here are the issues. 1) the raise is peanuts 2) working are a atrocious. 3) management harreses. 4) always understaffed. 5) management breaks the contract. Vote NO on this piece of sh.. of a contract!
How come the union didn’t negotiate for every carrier to get a jar of Vaseline, because we will all need it.
lol! guess the crap cca’s vying to be stupidvisors got all the jars
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Elite Ivy League DemonKKKats are out for the little guy-like postal workers. Rolando says if you want to see our great contract……….you have to go this way to the 1% egress! sheeple will never learn! demonrats are not your friends. 1% raise X 10 years= 10% 6% inflation X 10 years= 60%. 60% minus 10%=50% in ten years the salary of a postal worker will not purchase a tinkers damm. you better have a wheelbarrow like that women did in the Weimar German Republic in the 1920’s buying a loaf of bread with a cart of worthless paper money. with Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, UPS, FedEx are all delivering packages……….its over anyway.
President Trump only has to do what 8 years of Obammy did for the Post Office……NOTHING! not a high hurdle for President Trump to overcome.
Just glad to finally have a contract!!!!
One they could have agreed to a year ago.
Sham contract total of 2.5 percent increase and by 2018 our share of health care premium increases additional 2 percent more wtf so wheres our wonderful pay raise thanks freddy for all of your bullshiting!!!!!!@@@@
as stated above, these colas do not increase our salaries for pension.
No realistic wage increase compared with inflation. Check the ‘No’ box.
This is why I am no longer a NALC member. To cozy with management. Stewards use their position for personal gain. Health Care premiums increasing, but COLAS that will never come to fruition. Defend yourself with management. Dump the NALC. All a steward has to say is I need saturday off, and it is done.
what happen to May-Nov of 2016? postal magic numbers at its best… the upgrade should be when ratified with retro back to May of 2016 not Nov of 2016…. and no mention of rolling in back pay to base salary, which effects high three,overtime pay and social security. That my fellow brothers and sisters in money lost !
All this wait?…..for this??….
Usps made millions on our backs!!….terrible
I am quite sure that those carriers that hate the contract could have done much better! You would have gotten .05 increases, fully paid health, and more time off. Maybe like a teacher contract. Six hour work day,.04 raise, 40 minute paid lunch, 40 minute break, 36 weeks of work. Dream on! Maybe President Dump will take care of you. He will give you everything one could desire!
Fully paid health? Get serious!
Nope!
what about retirees? we get anything?
Your retired what more do you want lol
You get to keep the satchel.
Yes,you get dumped onto Medicare,which may go bye bye if Paul Ryan and his Republiturd colleagues get their way.
It appears we will get a little retroactive pay for COLA’s and wage increases if we’re “recent” retirees, whatever that time frame implies. I just retired in January, so I’ll get a little probably added to my regular annuity.
I want to point out that while I certainly see how we would have all liked a little more substantial wage increase, or pension in retiree’s cases, there is some good stuff here. The CCA’s have suffered terribly and while I think 30 months service is a bit long to convert them when it should be about 24, getting some more permanent employees hopefully will help the CCA’s and maybe, just maybe, the service will improve a bit.
I want to point out to Davey Johnson that he needs to learn how to spell for one thing, but as far as pensions go, he is in some dreamland where he thinks retirees are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Your pension, FYI, Davey, is totally dependent on your investment strategies, how you manage your TSP, put in enough time, etc. You ought to know that, and if you don’t, you better get online and learn quick. I was able to put money in my TSP in the G fund where it was safe, but my pension is 32% of my high five pay, and that’s not much.
For retirees who had a lot more expenses retirement isn’t going to be that cozy. So I want to caution anybody who thinks they’re going to be rich upon retirement you better wake up and smell the coffee. Every case is unique. Some have military time. Others who could retire can’t because of enormous debts, like putting kids through college, medical catastrophes, etc.
I was lucky to retire after 32+ years because I started very young and my wife and I couldn’t have kids. You people ragging on retirees, listen up: it’s in your hands, and you better be contributing to your future seriously if you’re not, and I know plenty who are totally ignoring their lives after working. Don’t be idiots.
Well excuse me darkside or should i say rhode scholar maybe you should have been a english teacher instead of a packmule for usps 2nd last i check it is called high three not high 5 genius high five’s you give your teammate when you win a game .And if you believe it is called high 5 you must have been that person that use to ride the short bus to school . And thanks for caring i’m well vested in tsp .I have been in the p.o long enough pops going on 30 years so i’m not as green as you look.lol
well said. I’ll be in good shape at retirement with no wife or kids and kicking in huge amounts to TSP, saving and investment accounts, and living well within my means. Problem for most is they cant or wont save (to materialistic). That old saying about the more u make the more u spend is very accurate; for most people!
Finally!
Truth sucks
It seems like we never get all the colas, and the retroactive pays are not added to the salaries making our salaries larger so that we could have a larger pension.
Isnt your pension large enough wtf
Only 32% of my high five? Look at my post a few notches up. You seem to me to be somebody who has done very little if anything to address your own retirement, and let me tell you: if you aren’t saving and investing in the TSP safe fund (G fund), you are going to be in a world of hurt before you realize it and won’t be able to leave until you’re in your seventies, and you better hope you don’t get seriously injured or sick and have to leave early. It is because of several factors I could retire, and NO TWO CASES ARE ALIKE. Don’t run retirees down as the rich people you apparently think we are, because we are not. My body is worn out after 32+ years of carrying mail, and I’ve had several surgeries and deal with a bad back, shoulder, knee, etc. Show some respect for those who carried a lot more mail than current carriers do in the pre-internet days.
no dental, no 11/2 for holidays, no nothing as far as value added. no 10% nite diff-do the workers realize they are going backward with these sell out dues collection agencies? no one with half a brain comes to work at the post office these days-65% that do leave within 3 months…..can you blame them. pretty much on the same rung as McDonalds employees. McDonalds employees get a free meal.
Night differential? Dental? Value added?
Go work for Mc D.
You go girl like u need dental lol
all three Postal Circus Company Unions got the same 1% yearly raise while inflation is 6-7% a year(no surprise when you realize they are in mismanagements pocket)…….PO Mismanagement gets criminal PFP yearly bonus scam money based on fraudulent, phony number counts, up to 10% yearly on top of inflated yearly salaries for people without university educations……..move along there is nothing to see here. once again the sheeple get fleeced. I am so happy the last 20 years I have purchased FDX and UPS shares to add to my stock portfolio………will help me retire at the earliest date.(ps-google “company union”)
Wah wah wah go a buy yourself a bag of peanuts and join the show!!!!!!!!🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈
You must be kidding…We haven’t had a raise in 2 years no step upgrade for a year and a half….. Health share going up…This is a pay CUT vote NO…
Vote what? It’s a done deal , drunkard!
Ah stop your bellyaching and go buy more Budweiser. 😎
Wah wah wah go buy a bag of peanuts and join the show!!!!!!🤡🤡🤡🎈🎈🎈🎈
Looks like the nalc screwed it’s members just at the apwu did, a shame these two should be called unions.
Can you explain how we got screwed? It’s not a great contract but it’s on par with most contracts we have received in the past 25 yrs or so. Look health insurance is a problem for everyone at this point so unless there’s something else I’m missing can you point it out.
It’s all because of the useless,in bed with management NRLCA that the other unions came out with the lousy 1% raises again and the healthcare contribution giveback. We would all be better off if the NRLCA went away.
I know its not a great contract like you say, but here in central massachusetts ( worcester) pay keeps going up and up for management, ( to the tune of over $5000.00 a year for most of them), and a new garage door here at the facility was rumored to cost over $30,000, plus other work has been done here to the tune of thousands, so dont try to tell me the money is not there.And lets not forget bonuses. Why do these lazy asses get the big bucks while we do all the work?
Ah go grab a broom and sweep up all the bullshit then!!!!!!!!!😎😎😎👍👍👍👍👍
The APWU didn’t screw it’s members this time,they did all they could to get the crap out that was in the last contract and get decent raises,arbitrator Goldberg screwed us this time.