USPS extends contract negotiations with unions

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has agreed with both the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) to extend their contract negotiations on new collective bargaining agreements. Although the contracts with both the NALC and the NPMHU expired at midnight on Friday (2o May), USPS and both the unions have decided to extend negotiations beyond the deadline.

The NALC represents approximately 210,000 city letter carriers, while the NPMHU represents around 44,000 employees.

In a statement posted on Saturday (21 May), the NPMHU commented: “The NPMHU and USPS bargaining teams have been engaged in contract negotiations since late February 2016 in an effort to reach agreement on the terms of their 2016 National Agreement.

“Contract talks between the parties continued well into the night on Friday, May 20, 2016 as the 2011 National Agreement was set to expire at midnight.

“While significant progress has been achieved, the parties have nevertheless been unable to finalize a full and complete successor contract.

“The parties have therefore agreed to extend bargaining over several key issues, with the hope of eventually reaching a full agreement.”