Internal bargaining subcommittees—made up of Executive Council members and Headquarters staff—have been assigned specific articles of the National Agreement. These groups are meeting regularly to review relevant materials and draft proposals. A list of subcommittees and their assigned National Agreement articles is available here.

Subcommittees are currently reviewing materials, including official NALC bargaining positions adopted through national convention resolutions, proposals from previous rounds of bargaining, collective-bargaining agreements from other unions, and reports from the Rank-and-File Bargaining Committee. Click here for more information.

At the upcoming National Rap Session scheduled for Nov. 21-23 in Cleveland, OH, subcommittees will share information with branch and state leaders about their progress and what’s ahead.

The Executive Council is scheduled to meet again in early November. NALC will continue to provide updates on the collective-bargaining preparation process.

Open Season and service hours update

Open Season for the 2026 plan year begins Monday, Nov. 10, and continues through Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. This is the annual opportunity for Postal Service employees and annuitants to evaluate their health insurance options, compare plan features, and make any necessary changes to their enrollment.

To better support members during Open Season and beyond, the Plan is implementing a second customer service shift beginning Nov. 10, 2025. With this change, representatives will now be available Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time.

For more information about 2026 benefits, rates, or Open Season enrollment, visit nalchbp.org or contact the Plan directly during the new extended service hours at 888-636-NALC (6252).

Internal bargaining subcommittees, composed of Executive Council members and Headquarters staff, have been assigned specific articles of the National Agreement and are meeting on a regular basis to review information and develop proposals for submission in the bargaining process. Click here for a list of the subcommittees that each Executive Council member has chosen to serve on, along with the related National Agreement articles.

Each subcommittee is tracking its progress by preparing and submitting reports following each meeting. These reports detail information including which articles were discussed, what materials were reviewed, the status of proposal drafts, and when the subcommittee is scheduled to meet next.

Subcommittees are reviewing the following materials:

• Official NALC bargaining positions — Resolutions submitted by branches and state associations that have been debated, voted on and adopted at past national conventions dating back to 1970.
• Prior bargaining proposals — Proposals from previous rounds of collective bargaining that can potentially be reworked or resubmitted.
• Collective-bargaining agreements of other unions — Contract items and elements that might translate well into our craft or prompt ideas relevant to city letter carrier issues.
• Rank-and-File Bargaining Committee reports — Ideas developed by the Rank-and-File Bargaining Committees comprised of Branch Leaders, Contract Enforcers and Newer Members. These committees met in the Washington, DC, area in mid-September and underwent a weeklong review process similar to the one followed by the Executive Council and staff bargaining subcommittees. Click here for more information.

The Executive Council is scheduled to meet at Headquarters again later this month. NALC will continue to provide updates about the work of the subcommittees involved in the collective-bargaining preparation process.

The first dispute arises from a position recently taken by management representatives on Step B teams regarding the arbitrability of grievances. The interpretive issue to be decided is whether a grievance appealed to Step B ceases to be arbitrable if the Step B team fails to issue a decision on the grievance within 14 days, absent an extension agreement.

The second interpretive dispute is over the Postal Service’s refusal to comply with the June 30, 2025, national-level award by Arbitrator Margo Newman, commonly referred to as the “NACI Award.”

Arbitrator Newman’s award held, in relevant part, that a grievance challenging the removal of an employee terminated because of an unfavorable National Agency Check with Inquiries report is arbitrable so long as the employee completed probation prior to the removal. Since the award was issued, USPS has failed to comply with it. USPS recently sued to vacate Arbitrator Newman’s award in federal court. The interpretive issue to be decided is whether USPS violates the National Agreement by refusing to comply with the national-level award.

NALC has requested to meet with USPS to discuss these issues pursuant to the process in Article 15.3.F of the National Agreement. Further updates will be provided as they become available.

Here are instructions on activating an account.

Letter carriers work and are paid as normal.

Because USPS is an independent, self-funded federal agency not funded by tax dollars, the Postal Service is not affected by the shutdown.

Branch presidents may begin registering their MBA representative for the training through the branch president’s Members Only page. The registration directions are below.

The class will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern time and will be an hour and a half long.

NALC has developed the ability to create a registration and training gateway through the Members Only portal on the NALC website.

Registration

Once a meeting has been scheduled through the Members Only portal, branch presidents will need to register their members in order for them to attend. To access the registration option, branch presidents can go to the NALC website and log on to the Members Only portal. Once logged on, click the “Meetings Registration” button, which will display a list of upcoming meetings. From there, presidents can register a member(s) by entering their last name in the search box and selecting the correct member from the drop-down list.

A member can also be removed from the registry list by checking the box under the “delete” column next to the corresponding member. Branch presidents will not be able to register more than the maximum number of attendees per branch or exceed the maximum number of attendees for that session. The maximum number of registrants per branch and for the session, as well as the registered-to-date counts, are displayed on the registration screen.

Training materials

Training materials and other pertinent information may be supplied for each session in the form of PDFs. These documents will be available to registrants on their Members Only page. The documents can be printed, copied and/or saved.

Accessing meeting information and/or joining the meeting

When a registered member wants to access training materials, view topics or join a meeting, they can go to the NALC website and log on to the Members Only portal. Once logged in, the member will press the “Meetings” button, which will display a list of those meetings the member is registered to attend.

For each meeting, there will be three buttons: the “Documents” button will give the member access to the training materials; the “Topics” button will give the member access to a list of topics (if any); and the “Join” button. The “Join” button will appear 10 minutes prior to the start time on the day of the meeting.

If a member logs in to the Members Only portal sooner than 10 minutes prior to the start of the meeting, they will need to exit to the home page and re-enter to access the “Join” button.

Once the “Join” button is selected, a Webex window titled “Starting your meeting...” will pop up. Scroll down to select “Join from your browser.” When joining, the member will be prompted to enter their name and email address in order to attend the meeting. Proceed by selecting the “Next” button followed by the “Join Meeting” button.

The committees are undergoing a review process similar to the one followed by the Executive Council and staff bargaining subcommittees. The Rank-and-File Bargaining Committees will provide valuable input on potential proposals from their various perspectives.

Below is a list of each Rank-and-File Bargaining Committee member.

Branch Leaders

• Valerie Castillo - Salem, OR Branch 347
• James Collins II - Knoxville, TN Branch 419
• Anthony DeMatteo Jr. - New Haven, CT Branch 19
• Elise Foster - Chicago, IL Branch 11
• Sean Geackel - Bux-Mont, PA Branch 920
• Eric Lomax - Jamaica, NY Branch 562
• Blake Rockers - Lawrence, KS Branch 104
• Leigh Smith - Decatur, GA Branch 2225
• John Syacsure III - South Macomb, MI Branch 4374
• Marta Witten - Findlay, OH Branch 143

Contract Enforcers

• Doug Blevens - Jonesboro, AR Branch 1131
• Lakeyshan Bryant - Greenwood, MS Branch 1080
• Thomas Filipone - Philadelphia, PA Branch 157
• James Giese - Stockton, CA Branch 213
• Yvette Kinard - New York, NY Branch 36
• Juan Munoz - Corpus Christi, TX Branch 1259
• Matthew Parkin - Pocatello, ID Branch 927
• Eric Porter - Sheboygan, WI Branch 102
• Michael Ridgely - Silver Spring, MD Branch 2611
• Zed Waltz - Lexington, KY Branch 361

Newer members