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By Doug Cunningham

The National Association of Letter Carriers has reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Postal Service that limits the privatization of city mail carrier jobs. The agreement calls for 8.85 percent raises over five years in addition to regular cost of living adjustments for 222,000 union city mail delivery workers. Letter carriers will have to pay more for health insurance premiums under this tentative deal – five percentage points more over five years. This deal won’t end the issue of contracting out some city mail delivery, but a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate by Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin might. Twenty-five other senators back it. It’s called the Mail Delivery Protection Act of 2007”. It forbids the U.S. Postal Service from entering into any contract “with any motor carrier or other person for the delivery of mail on any route with one or more families per mile”.