About 200,000 postal workers have signed a tentative contract agreement with the US Postal Service that includes retroactive pay increases and a promise to provide workers with air-conditioned trucks.
The new agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the union members, runs until November 2026. Since May 2023, letter deliverers have been working without a contract.
Both the union and the Post welcomed the agreement, which was announced Friday.
“Both parties did not get everything they wanted. But by negotiating in good faith, we ended up with an agreement that meets our goals and rewards our members,” Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told The Associated Press. “To make that possible, the Postal Service had to recognize members’ contributions to the Postal Service and the American people.”
Among other improvements, the deal increases the top salary and reduces the amount of time it takes for new employees to reach that level, Renfroe said. He praised Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his deputy for negotiating in good faith during the difficult process.
The Postal Service said the agreement supports its 10-year “Delivering for America” mission to modernize operations and adapt to changing customer needs.
“This is a fair and responsible agreement that serves the interests of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service,” said Doug Tulino, Deputy Postmaster General and Chief Human Resources Officer.
As part of the agreement, all city transit operators will receive three annual pay increases of 1.3% each by 2025, some of which will be retroactive from November 2023. Employees will also receive retroactive and future cost-of-living adjustments.
There is also a commitment from the Postal Service to “make every effort” to air-condition mail trucks.
The postal service began rolling out new electric delivery vans, equipped with air conditioning, in the summer. While the trucks won’t win any beauty contests, they did receive rave reviews from letter carriers who were used to older vehicles that lacked modern safety features and were prone to malfunctioning and even catching fire.
Within a few years, the new delivery fleet will expand to 60,000, most of them electric models, which will serve as the Postal Service’s main delivery vehicle from Maine to Hawaii.
Under the tentative contract agreement, the Postal Service must discuss with the union any plans to purchase new mail trucks without air conditioning.
This is the second contract under negotiation since DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in 2020. It is expected to take several weeks for union members to ratify the contract. Postal workers in rural areas are not covered by the contract because they are represented by a different union.