WASHINGTON – President Young announced today that the Obama administration will not pursue a proposal to raise postal employees’ benefit contributions in the 2010 budget. Vice President Joseph Biden confirmed the action when he met with President Young at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Miami on Thursday.

“It’s a pleasure to work with a friendly administration for a change,” President Young said. “I look forward to working with the new administration to find ways to strengthen the Postal Service in the face of the current economic crisis.”

The cost-shift proposal was conceived by the Office of Management and Budget during the transition between the Bush and Obama administrations. Once the NALC and other postal unions pointed out that the proposal would infringe on the collective bargaining rights of letter carriers and other postal employees, it was withdrawn from consideration.