National Association of Letter Carriers
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| National Association of Letter Carriers | |
| Founded | 1889 |
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| Members | 300,000 |
| Country | United States |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO, UNI |
| Key people | William H. Young, President Fredric V. Rolando, Executive Vice President |
| Office location | Washington, D.C. |
| Website | www.nalc.org |
Founded in 1889, The National Association of Letter Carriers (or NALC) is the labor union of city letter carriers employed by the United States Postal Service. Letter carriers delivered 213 billion pieces of mail last year, six days a week, to over 146 million homes and businesses in every city, suburb and town in America.
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[edit] History
In 1889, the Milwaukee Letter Carriers, knowing many of their fellow carriers would be attending the Grand Army of the Republic encampment in their city that summer, issued an official Call to meet during the reunion to form a national association and act on other matters of importance to letter carriers and their families.
Heeding the Call, 60 letter carriers from 18 states gathered in the meeting room above Schaefer's Saloon. On August 29, 1889 they unanimously adopted a resolution to form a National Association of Letter Carriers. The next day, the convention elected officers and adopted a number of resolutions.
Over the years, the union has worked to reduce working hours, the weight of loads that must be lifted at any one time, the strictness of uniform-wearing standards, and other worklife-quality issues, as well as the obvious ones of pay and benefits. Activists stress that the Postal Service management style is often one of the more dictatorial ones in the modern United States, and imply that this is one of the reasons that a seemingly disproportionate number of USPS employees become infamous for "going postal", although they also point out that the vast majority of such employees were not members of the union. However, statistics show that NALC member carriers are one of the most respected group of workers in the United States.[citation needed]
Prior to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the U.S. Post Office was a department of the executive branch of the United States Government and the Postmaster General was a Cabinet member. This meant that the rate of postal pay was set by the United States Congress into federal law. This somewhat-unique arrangement meant that the NALC was even more overtly political than most other labor unions. Like most other U.S. unions, it has largely supported the Democratic Party, but has been critical of Democrats who have hurt the interests of its members (such as the veto by President Lyndon B. Johnson of a postal pay raise in the mid-1960s, and has supported individual Republicans that it has found to support its members' interests. The NALC worked hard for and supported Postal Reorganization of 1971; its expertise was more in lobbying than in traditional labor-management negotiations and collective bargaining. Nonetheless, it is now recognized as the collective bargaining agent for all city carriers.
This arrangement carries some difficulties for the union. By the Taft-Hartley Act and other federal legislation, the federal government is uniformly an "open shop"; no one can be compelled to join the NALC or any other union as a condition of gaining or continuing employment with the government. However, over 93% of all working Letter Carriers are members of the NALC. Also, by federal law, carriers (like other governmental workers) are forbidden from striking, meaning that the primary threat that private-sector unions can make if they feel an employer is not bargaining in good faith is not available. This means that collective bargaining agreements between the NALC and the USPS must be politically feasible; if they are not, this could invite unwanted intervention by United States Congress.
[edit] Issues
Politically, the NALC is inalterably opposed to postal privatization and to any termination of the USPS monopoly on "First Class mail". The future of the union, and the post office itself, seem to be threatened on an unprecedented level by the march of technology, with the Internet, fax, electronic bill-paying, and other forms of communication that do not involve the physical transportation of pieces of paper from one location to another. This has put even more pressure on the NALC to merge with the other major postal union, the American Postal Workers Union, which represents postal clerks; as of this writing, this has not yet occurred, although it has been formally proposed at various times for decades. It should also be noted that most NALC members overwhelmingly reject any mergers with the APWU. It should also be noted that technologies such as the internet has increased mail flow. Any business done online generates hard mail.[citation needed] The NALC is also combating contracting out. The United States Postal Service is creating routes and contracting them to low wage, no benefit workers.[citation needed] These workers are subjected to minimal screening and may sub-contract the work out to others.[citation needed]
[edit] Distinction from other unions
The NALC in a few minor ways distinguishes itself from private sector unions and even other government unions; for one, it refers to its chapters as "branches" rather than "locals". It developed its own retirement community for its members, Nalcrest, Florida. It operates a mutual benefit association which sells insurance to members which predates the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan, in which it is also a major participant, even as most other employee groups have discontinued their participation.
The union has a close relationship with Jerry Lewis and his annual Labor Day telethon and is invariably one of the groups showcased by the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
[edit] Annual food drive
Another yearly charitable event for the NALC is the one day food drive, which is the largest single day food collection in the nation. Letter Carriers collect food from Americans as they deliver them their mail. Letter Carriers also promote this event heavily. On May 12, 2007 over 70 million pounds of non-perishable foods were collected. Campbell Soup, Valpak, United Way of America, Second Harvest, the AFL-CIO and cartoonist Bil Keane are all partners in the food drive.
[edit] See Also
- United States Postal Service
- National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
- American Postal Workers Union
