Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Negotiations between the U.S. Postal Service and two unions failed over the weekend when contracts expired. Postal workers are not allowed by Congress to strike, but the development is the latest setback for the beleaguered agency.
Talks with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) reached an impasse, but those with the American Postal Workers Union have been extended until Tuesday.
The NRLCA represents 67,000 career workers and 48,000 non-career employees. It began discussions on a new contract in September, when the Postal Service sought a 2 cent increase in rates to help cover a record budget deficit.
The Postal Service wants a “smaller, leaner workforce better aligned with changing customer needs.”
The agency has seen demand for its services plummet with the onset of online technologies. Mail volume fell 20 percent between 2006 and the following year. Net loss for the 2010 fiscal year was $8.5 billion.
The agency receives no federal funds for its operations and depends only on revenues from postage and other services. It expects a budget gap of about $7 billion next year despite cost cutting measures worth $10 billion in the last three years.
Despite the losses and the prospect of having no funds to meet a $5.5 billion payment to its Retiree Health Benefit Fund, the agency’s request for rate increases was denied last month.
The American Postal Workers Union (APWU), which represents more than 220,000 clerks, mechanics and drivers in the Postal Service, will continue negotiations with the agency until noon on Tuesday.
“We believe there is still potential to negotiate an agreement,” APWU president Cliff Guffey said in a statement.
“Restoring work that has been outsourced or assigned to managerial personnel will bring stability to APWU members who have suffered extensive excessing and reassignments,” he added.
Any agreement reached between the agency and the APWU needs to be ratified by a vote of the union’s members. The government is required to assign a mediator if talks with the APWU break down. During mediation, the Postal Service and the union have 60 days to work out terms of a contract, after which arbitration will determine the outcome should no agreement be reached.
Congress has declared the Postal Service an essential national service, and workers are not allowed to go on strike during the mediation or arbitration process.
Contracts with two other unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, that represent workers are scheduled to expire in November next year. Negotiations for those contracts begin three months before the expiration.
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