Letter carriers rally for higher pay

San Francisco

Postal carriers rallied Feb. 21 at San Francisco’s Harry Bridges Plaza to demand decent pay and working conditions for those who deliver the mail. The rally, part of coast-to-coast actions in many cities, was called by the 295,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) on the eve of new contract negotiations with the United States Postal Service.

“We deliver 376 million pieces of mail and packages to nearly 169 million delivery points nearly every day, to every address,” said a union flyer, “including essential items like pension checks and prescriptions. Our work is vital to the economy.”

Yet management has created staffing shortages, long workdays and high turnover rates, with 55% of new carriers leaving the job within the first year, the flyer said.

Bradford Louis, president of NALC Branch 214, said living costs in the San Francisco area are so high that many carriers had to move to distant suburbs to find an affordable home. He reported that some carriers have resorted to sleeping in their cars.

Demonstrators wore red and black NALC T-shirts with the motto “Fight like Hell!“ emblazoned on the front. Retired carrier Jimmy Kelly played his guitar and sang labor songs. A contingent of Burmese carriers from San Francisco’s largest station at 180 Napoleon St. were also on the picket line.

Keith Brown, Executive Secretary Treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, said his grandmother had worked for the post office in a period when African Americans found it hard to get jobs with decent pay and benefits. Thanks to the unions, he said, she ended up with both. Now management is trying to turn back the clock to the bad old days.

Dave Welsh is a retired San Francisco-area letter carrier.