WASHINGTON – The national president of the National Association of Letter Carriers union told key Washington state legislators today that passage of bills to create a “Do Not Mail” registry would be detrimental to the Postal Service, its workforce, and the general public.

NALC President William H. Young, whose union represents 221,000 active city letter carriers in the nation, expressed his “fierce opposition” to the legislation in letters to Washington House Commerce and Labor Chairman Steve Conway and Senate Consumer Protection and Housing Chairman Brian Weinstein as Conway’s committee held a hearing today on the legislative proposal. About 5,500 letter carriers reside in Washington state.

Young said the proposal “could jeopardize the very future of America’s postal system” adding that while it may be well-intentioned, it is being erroneously promoted as similar to “Do Not Call” limits on telemarketers.

“Unlike the annoying phone calls that were routinely timed to coincide with the dinner hour, postal patrons are free to choose when and how to deal with the mail they receive,” Young said.

“Elimination of a significant portion of advertising mail could be devastating,” he said. “This ‘third class’ mail now constitutes more than 50 percent of all mail, and its loss could mean reductions in current levels of service or, even worse, the collapse of all postal services. In sum, it would be detrimental to the Postal Service, its workforce and to citizens themselves to limit the mail delivered to postal patrons.”

Young said letter carriers, as other citizens, have environmental concerns about the waste of natural resources, but added that most advertising mailing is printed on recycled paper and postal patrons can recycle that mail.