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500 days without a contract, mail carriers picket in Bloomington

Row of people standing along a highway holding signs that say "First Class Mail, First Class Pay"
Eric Stock
/
WGLT
Letter carriers staged a picket on Monday outside the Bloomington post office. The national union has been working without a contract for more than 500 days.

Mail carriers and union allies staged a picket Monday outside the Bloomington post office as their national union has been working without a contract for more than 500 days.

The National Association of Letter Carriers [NALC] and U.S. Postal Service [USPS] have several unresolved issues, including pay.

Carey Klein, union steward with NALC Local 522 in Bloomington, said letter carriers’ starting pay of $19 an hour can't keep up with rising costs.

“We deserve to at least keep up with inflation and the cost of groceries,” she said, adding the low pay has led to staff shortages because workers can make more money doing entry-level work elsewhere, and that's led to mandatory overtime for postal workers.

“It’s a daily thing that you come into work and you don’t know whether you are going to be staying late, so family-wise it is very hard to plan anything. We are being forced to come in on our days off,” she said.

Klein added the union also wants more health and safety protections. She said postal workers are targeted because the mail they deliver often includes money.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported series crimes to postal service employees and property nearly doubled from 2017 to 2023.

Klein said the union supports a proposal in Congress that would stiffen sentences against postal workers by putting them in the same classification as police officers.

Klein said heat also is a problem because post service vehicles that are decades old lack air conditioning, adding letter carriers also lack adequate training to detect heat-related illnesses.

Mail-in ballots

Letter carriers have raised concerns about first-class mail being slowed as the Postal Service deals with employee shortages and considers closing rural post office locations as part of a 10-year austerity plan.

But Klein said voters can be assured mail-in ballots will be delivered on time.

“We are going to make sure that mail is delivered and their packages are here. As soon as we get them, we get them to where they need to go," she said.

Eric Stock is the News Director at WGLT. You can contact Eric at ejstoc1@ilstu.edu.