Postal Service won't add more private mail carriers

The U.S. Postal service has agreed not to hand over any of the country’s new urban mail routes to private companies, at least for the next six months. All plans to contract out new mail deliveries, including a proposal for building in Perth Amboy, have been withdrawn.

The agreement is a victory for members of the national letter carriers’ union, who have been concerned with the postal service’s increased use of part-time, non-union employees to deliver mail. Now, according to a contract tentatively agreed on last night, a committee will be formed to look at the issue of privatization.

In New Jersey, the postal service has also reversed its recent decision to privatize routes in Little Falls, West Paterson and West Orange. And in Perth Amboy, the building that the postal service had planned to assign to a private contractor is now part of a city carrier’s route.