Jan. 8, 2013 – Click here to read NALC President Fredric V. Rolando's concluding testimony to the three-member interest arbitration board that will set the terms of a new National Agreement between the NALC and the U.S. Postal Service. Rolando's testimony in particular discusses the unique contributions the NALC and its members make to the Postal Service. The presentation explains that NALC’s proposals for the 2012 National Agreement are intended to reconcile the Postal Service's evident need to adapt to changing financial and business conditions and the union's goals to protect the job security of its members and maintain the wage and benefit standards its has achieved over four decades of collective bargaining.  Special emphasis is given NALC's determination to preserve the contractual ban on sub-contracting and our drive to create a career path for non-career, transitional employees.

Dec. 20, 2012 -- NALC President Fredric V. Rolando has written to every member of the House of Representatives, urging them to vote no on H.R. 6684, a bill with provisions that would result in a direct 5 percent cut in the take-home pay of federal and postal employees. “These American citizens have already suffered serious cuts to their pay and benefits over the past four years,” Rolando said. Click here to read the letter.

Dec. 12, 2012 -- East St. Louis, IL Branch 319 letter carrier Willie Frazier was shot Tuesday afternoon while delivering the mail. Reports say Frazier, 60, was delivering on his route late Tuesday afternoon in Cahokia while a gun fight was taking place about a block away. The 20-year carrier, who has delivered mail on this route for 15 years, was reportedly struck in the left leg by stray bullet. Region 3 National Business Agent Neal Tisdale says that Frazier was treated at a local hospital and quickly released, and is now recovering at home. Meanwhile, the police investigation into the shooting continues. Click here to read coverage by KMOV-TV.

Dec. 5, 2012 – The interest arbitration board that will set the terms of a new National Agreement between NALC and USPS continues to meet and also to accept written testimony and exhibits from both sides.

Nov. 16, 2012 -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) has proposed an alarming idea to allow the U.S. Postal Service to end Saturday mail delivery service but retain package delivery service on that day. “While I’m sure Senator Lieberman’s intentions are good, his proposal completely ignores the 2006 congressional mandate to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of future retiree health benefits and to do so within just 10 years.” Click here to read more.

Nov. 1, 2012 — The interest arbitration board that will set the terms of a new National Agreement between NALC and USPS, chaired by Shyam Das, convened by telephone in executive session on Thursday, Nov. 1. The session was held after hearings dates scheduled for Monday, Oct. 29, and Wednesday Oct. 31, had to be rescheduled due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy. A progress report on the proceeding will be forthcoming.

Oct. 9, 2012 — The NALC and USPS have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding which will alleviate some of the staffing issues in many delivery units by providing for a) the conversion of over 6,000 part-time flexible city letter carriers to full-time regular, b) the filling of vacant residual CC-01 and CC-02 positions that are not withheld for Article 12, and c) the limited authorization to hire an additional 3,400 bargaining unit transitional employees. Click here to read more.

Sept. 12, 2012 -- The House of Representatives is expected soon to pass a six-month continuing resolution to keep the government in operation after Sept. 30, the end of Fiscal Year 2012, and indications are that the Senate will pass it as well. “Thanks in part to our activists’ lobbying efforts,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said, “the bill maintains the federal appropriations language that preserves six-day mail delivery service—language that has been part of similar appropriations measures for more than 30 years.” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) had asked President Obama to send to Congress an interim postal reform package for inclusion in the continuing resolution—a package that called for permitting USPS to cut a day of mail delivery service and to interfere with collective-bargaining by proposing a ban on allowing postal unions to negotiate no-layoff agreements as part of their contracts. But there is no indication that the Obama administration will propose any such legislation.

Sept. 6, 2012 -- Interest arbitration for a new National Agreement between the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service began formally on Thursday, Sept. 6. The hearing convened at NALC Headquarters in Washington, with the union's entire Executive Council in attendance along with a contingent from the USPS. The three-member arbitration panel, consisting of neutral arbitrator Shyam Das, NALC attorney Bruce Simon and USPS attorney Robert Dufek, heard opening statements from NALC's lead counsel Keith Secular and his USPS counterpart, Thomas Reinert. "The NALC acknowledges that the Postal Service's financial situation is as dire as the agency says it is," NALC President Fredric Rolando remarked afterward, "but the main source of the problem is not the pay and conditions of letter carriers, but the Congress of the United States. The arbitration panel cannot solve the financial crisis by helping the Postal Service dismantle itself; Congress must act and the arbitrators must give the parties the chance to do what's necessary to adapt to the needs of the 21st century."

August 9, 2012 -- Today’s figures reflect the congressional role in the Postal Service’s red ink and the need for Congress to address the damage it has done. The USPS reported that $3.1 billion of the $5.2 billion loss resulted from the 2006 congressional mandate that the Postal Service – alone among all agencies and companies – pre-fund future retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, that mandate accounts for $9.3 billion of the $11.7 billion in USPS red ink, or 80 percent. Click here to read more.

July 30, 2012 -- The word ‘default’ sounds ominous, but in reality this is a default on the part of Congress. It was Congress that in 2006 imposed a burden on the Postal Service that no other public agency or private company in America faces—the obligation to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. And Congress made this unaffordable by requiring the Postal Service, which doesn’t receive a dime of taxpayer money, to pre-fund 75 years into the future. Click here to read more.

July 9, 2012 -- On Sunday evening, NALC President Fredric Rolando held a tele-town hall call with the NALC membership about the dangers of the House of Representatives taking up the job-killing postal bill, H.R. 2309. If the bill becomes law, it would dismantle the USPS and destroy 200,000 jobs – perhaps including yours. Sometime in the next three weeks, the speaker of the house must decide whether to bring H.R. 2309 to a vote and Congress must decide whether to support it or not. Click here to read more.

July 3, 2012 -- On July 3, the Interest Arbitration Board chaired by Arbitrator Jack Clarke issued its award setting the terms of a new four-and-a-half-year national agreement between the Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association. Significantly, the Board rejected the Postal Service’s call for a more radical restructuring of the economic provisions of that agreement. Chairman Clarke stated: “The Chairperson is convinced that no restructuring of a single labor contract can address all of the USPS’s financial challenges created, in large part, by the recession and the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act with its retiree health benefits pre-funding obligations.” Click here for a summary of the terms of the NRLCA award.

June 12, 2012 -- The NALC and the Postal Service have agreed upon the selection of National Arbitrator Shyam Das as chairman of the three-person arbitration board that will set the terms of the next collective-bargaining agreement between the union and the USPS. Click here to read more.

May 10, 2012 -- “The Postal Service’s own data shows that the first thing Congress needs to do is address this artificial political burden that is driving almost all the red ink. It would be absurd to start to dismantle the universal network and degrade service to the American people and America’s businesses—when almost all of the red ink has nothing to do with the costs of those services but stems directly from a burden that Congress imposed and Congress could fix overnight.” Click here to read more.

April 25, 2012 -- The United States Senate adopted a deeply flawed postal reform bill on Wednesday, voting for S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, by a vote of 62 to 37. “We’re disappointed, but we are determined to fight on,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said after the vote. He reminded letter carriers that the legislative process is far from over. “It may take months to get a bill through the House of Representatives,” he said, “but we will not rest in this struggle to defend a strong and viable Postal Service.” Click here to read more.

April 24, 2012 -- “The Senate voted Tuesday to begin the slow dismantling of the United States Postal Service and to attack injured postal workers by slashing their workers’ compensation benefits,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “Senators ignored more than 25,000 phone calls from NALC members around the country Tuesday urging them to adopt these amendments. Now we have no choice now but to strongly oppose final passage of S. 1789, a vote on which is expected Wednesday in the Senate.” Click here to read the president's full statement on today’s vote on S. 1789.

April 17, 2012 -- Today, the four co-sponsors of S. 1789 introduced a new version of their bill to reform the Postal Service and the Senate has voted to debate this legislation in the days ahead. Although the National Association of Letter Carriers deeply appreciates the hard work of Sens. Lieberman, Collins, Carper and Brown in bringing this legislation to the floor, we cannot in good conscience support S. 1789 as currently drafted. We believe it will drive the Postal Service into a death spiral. Click here to read more.

April 6, 2012 -- In a speech at Rutgers, NALC President Fredric V. Rolando calls on Congress to take the time to draft comprehensive reform instead of pushing through flawed legislation. Rolando said Friday that Postal Service legislation pending before Congress lacks any long-term vision and fails to provide for the creation of an effective business plan for a vital American institution. “What the Postal Service needs most is a new business model,” Rolando said, “built from the bottom up, one that looks above the immediate financial and structural problems to find opportunities to meet the evolving needs of the American people in the 21st century.” Click here to read more.

March 21, 2012 -- The House Budget Committee’s proposed budget for 2013 continues the assault on federal employees by calling for a freeze on federal workers’ salaries for an additional three years and for massive cuts to retirement benefits. “Federal workers are the heart and soul of the middle class,” NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said, “but it seems that some members of Congress are determined to keep trying to use federal workers’ pay and benefits as a sort of piggy bank to finance their budget proposals.” Click here to read more.

Feb. 13, 2012 -- President Barack Obama today released his budget for Fiscal Year 2013. Of specific concern is the call for giving the USPS the authority to reduce mail delivery service from six days a week to five as soon as early as January 2013. "Eliminating Saturday delivery is a counter-productive proposal that would degrade services to the public and to businesses, threaten the viability of the Postal Service itself, and begin to dismantle the universal network that has served the country well for 200 years," NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said. Click here to read President Rolando's full statement.

Feb. 6, 2012 -- On Jan. 24, Rep. Dennis Ross, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service, and Labor Policy, introduced H.R. 3813, the Securing Annuities for Federal Employees Act. But it probably comes as little surprise that Ross’ measure, were it to become law, would in fact threaten the retirement benefits of federal workers—including postal workers. Ross’ proposal calls for entirely eliminating the defined benefit component government workers receive under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Instead, under the Ross plan, FERS annuitants would be entitled only to the benefits earned through both Social Security and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).“Ross’ bill is a blatant attack on federal pensions,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said, “yet another front in the war on the middle class being pursued by the right-wing faction that now dominates the national Republican party." Click here to read more.

Jan. 26, 2012 -- As the nation’s elected representatives returned to Washington in January to begin the second session of the 112th Congress, NALC President Fredric Rolando penned a special greeting to all House and Senate members to mark the occasion. “On behalf of the nearly 300,000 men and women who make up the National Association of Letter Carriers,” he wrote, “I would like to formally welcome you back and give you a brief update on letter carriers’ actions in the field over the last six weeks.” Click here to read more.

Jan. 20, 2012 -- On Jan. 20, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it was declining to further extend its collective-bargaining negotiations with the NALC. “I am disappointed by the Postal Service’s decision,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “We had been making steady progress in negotiations, right up to the latest deadline. Our negotiations have been innovative, professional and productive and have been conducted at the highest level. “Now that the formal litigation process has begun, we will pursue a negotiated agreement through mediation and prepare to vigorously defend our members in interest arbitration, if it reaches that step,” he said. The decision triggers an impasse that will automatically send contract talks to mediation under the auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. If no consensual agreement between NALC and USPS is reached within a 60-day period of mediation, the issues will be submitted for final and binding resolution before an interest arbitration panel, which under law must consider all the evidence presented by both parties. “Notwithstanding this turn of events, NALC continues to believe that a negotiated agreement is in the best interests of the parties, the businesses that rely on us, and the nation we serve,” Rolando said. “We will continue to negotiate in good faith as mediation takes place under the law’s dispute-resolution process, even as we prepare for binding arbitration. We will continue to work with Congress on vitally needed reforms and work with our external expert advisers to advance a new business model that will revitalize and preserve the USPS as a vital element of the nation’s business and cultural infrastructure.”

Jan. 16, 2012 -- A commentary piece written by NALC President Fredric Rolando was published in the Sunday, Jan. 15 edition of Southern California’s Press-Enterprise, a major newspaper in Rep. Darrell Issa’s district. Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. His so-called postal reform bill, H.R. 2309, contains provisions that, were it to become law, would destroy the U.S. Postal Service while hurting people and businesses. In Rolando’s item, which was a response to Issa’s Dec. 18 op-ed in the Press-Enterprise, the NALC president laid out a compelling argument against the congressman’s efforts and discussed what should instead be done. “[Issa’s] op-ed is all over the lot in citing culprits: management, e-commerce, workers and more,” Rolando wrote. “Those are assertions masquerading as analysis.” Click here to read more.