US rural letter carriers set for contract arbitration
A new collective bargaining agreement for America’s rural letter carriers looks set to be decided by an arbitrator. A stalemate in labour talks between the US Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association has still not budged since November.
The USPS has now told regulators that both itself and the NRCLA are now aiming to bypass a mediation process and move directly to arbitration.
An official arbitrator is yet to be decided, but would assess the positions of both sides and then select the terms for a new labour deal.
The US Postal Service has been seeking to apply similar terms in its contracts with other unions to those it agreed with the American Postal Workers’ Union in May. In essence, it means cutting operating costs and allowing a more flexible use of postal workers, including an increased use of part-time and temporary staff.
About 80% of the struggling Postal Service’s operating costs are directly related to labour, and 85% of full-time USPS workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
Following the APWU agreement, negotiations with the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union are beginning this month, with view to the expiry of their current deals this November.
NRLCA president Don Cantriel said the union could not accept USPS proposals to reduce pay for his members.
“They basically want us to do the same amount of work for significantly less money,” Cantriel told the Federal Times yesterday.
