“My son doesn’t understand why I came to the rally today,” Marsha Outly, a letter carrier in Chicago who retired after 32 years, told the Militant March 23. “I explained that I’m here for the farmers, for the elderly. They deserve door-to-door postal service. If service there is dismantled, many won’t be able to drive long distances to get their mail. Mail service should be for everybody!”
Outly was part of the several hundred National Association of Letter Carriers members and their supporters who gathered in downtown Chicago to say “Hell No!” to any attempt to downsize or privatize the postal service and to demand higher wages and safer conditions.
They were part of the thousands who turned out across the country in two sets of rallies — one set was organized by NALC and others three days earlier by the American Postal Workers Union, which organizes mail sorters and other workers in post offices across the country.
In February NALC members overwhelmingly voted down a proposed three-year contract that offered only 1.3% a year in wage increases. Postal workers are legally considered an “essential service” and denied the right to strike by an anti-labor federal law, so contract negotiations were moved into binding arbitration.
On March 24 a new contract was imposed on the workers. It gave only the slightest improvement in wages — 1.3% the first year, 1.4% the second, 1.5% the third. None of these come close to meeting today’s costs for basic necessities like food, child care and rent.
“This is a union-busting procedure,” Jim McNutt, a retired letter carrier with 23 years on the job, told the Militant. “They want to split us into many different companies, and then go after our unions. We need to fight to defend what was won in the 1970 strike.”
In Springfield, New Jersey, some 150 members of NALC Branch 38 and supporters turned out. “Letter carriers’ jobs are getting harder,” branch President Joe Rutkoski told the Militant. “Some are working 60 hours a week and still struggling to make ends meet. We have a cost-of-living adjustment in our contract, but we still need more.”
Clint Colie, a branch trustee and part-time area representative, addressed the rally. “Letter carriers owe everything we have to the union’s strike in 1970,” he said. “Our brothers and sisters risked everything, including the threat of jail time.”
Despite the anti-strike legislation, thousands of postal workers walked out in 1970. President Richard Nixon threatened to use troops to break the strike, but the postal workers held firm. They won a substantial raise and for the first time established the union’s right to negotiate over wages, benefits and working conditions. “We have to spread the word about what we face today,” Colie said.
Some 55 postal workers, members of NALC Capital Branch 142, gathered in the northeast section of Washington, D.C. “I’ve been a postal worker for 31 years. We walk 5 to 10 miles a day on our routes,” Karen Nance, vice president of the local, told the Militant. “Lots of our members have shoulder injuries, knee injuries, you name it. The post office has one of the highest injury rates of any job.”
“We work all year round, in all weather,” Andrea Morgan, a postal worker for eight years, added. “If it’s eight hours of work, we do eight hours, if its more than eight we work till it’s finished.”
Many postal workers spoke on how the threat of cuts in postal service affects fellow workers and farmers in the countryside and rural communities. “In some rural areas people have to drive two hours to get their mail,” letter carrier Jenny Naca said. “I have a lot of elderly people on my route. It would be crazy to expect an 80-year-old disabled person to have to drive to get their medication.”
More than 100 members of NALC Branch 43 and supporters rallied in front of the Federal Building in downtown Cincinnati March 23. They chanted, “Rain or sleet or dark of night, we are here to win this fight!”
Over 500 workers from all over Los Angeles County joined the NALC protest at the Federal Building there. The majority were letter carriers, many attending their first labor rally.
Some 75 members and supporters of the American Postal Workers Union rallied in south central Los Angeles March 20. “They’ve mastered the art of dividing us. If we go along with it we will crumble,” Cesar Zelaya, a postal worker for 24 years, told the Militant at the rally. “I’m glad I stepped up because I feel like we have a new labor movement today.”
Lisa Rottach in Chicago, Terry Evans in northern New Jersey, Deborah Liatos in Los Angeles, Betsy Farley in Cincinnati and Samir Hazboun in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.