EVANSVILLE – Jeff Mullen put it simply: “This contract is a joke.”
That was his reaction to the tentative agreement his union, the National Association of Letter Carriers, struck with the U.S. Postal Service last week after more than 500 days of negotiations.
What did they get after all that waiting? Meager raises (1.3% across the board), a few hundred bucks in cost-of-living adjustments, and almost nothing to address the difficult working conditions that have plagued understaffed and overworked employees for years, opponents said.
“It gives away stuff and we get nothing in return,” said Mullen – a longtime Evansville mail carrier and one of the rally’s organizers. “… It’s almost like a give-back to the post office, really.”
That dissatisfaction, which he said ripples through large swaths of the National Association of Letter Carriers membership, is one of the many reasons letter carriers will hold a “Save Our Service” rally at the Four Freedoms monument in Downtown Evansville at 3 p.m. on Sunday. What started as a demonstration to demand a new contract will now serve as a call for a better deal.