(Your name)
(Address)
(Phone #)
(Email address)
The Honorable __________,(senator’s full name)
United States Senate
(Senator’s office address)
Dear
Senator __________,(senator’s last name)
On behalf of the rural carriers employed at the __________(city and state) Post Office, I urge you to support S. 1457, The Mail Delivery Protection Act of 2007. This bill would forbid the Postal Service from entering into any contract “with any motor carrier or other person for the delivery of mail on any route with 1 or more families per mile.”
The Postal Service has utilized contract routes for years. But the purpose of these routes was to provide mail delivery to sparsely populated areas, specifically areas with less than one family per mile. For areas with such low population densities, an independent contractor provides a more practical, cost-effective approach than using regular postal employees.
For decades, the Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA), the union of rural mail carriers, held an agreement that assigned the use of contract routes to the areas described above. Recently, however, the Postal Service has begun to violate this agreement by creating contract routes in suburban and metro areas—in place of city and rural routes.
The NRLCA, as well the National Association of Letter Carriers (the city carriers’ union), has already responded to the Postal Service’s violation of its contractual agreement by filing a grievance on the issue. But the Postal Service continues to implement contract routes in territory that has traditionally been served by city carriers and their rural counterparts. This unchecked expansion hurts rural carriers in three main ways:
It takes future routes away from the rural and city craft, threatening the livelihoods of present and future carriers
If the number of rural routes are decreased, the number of rural carriers are also decreased, hindering our ability to fund the pensions of future retirees
Contract routes jeopardize national security because, unlike regular employees, independent contractors can be hired without undergoing background checks
Rural carriers typically spend many years as Rural Carrier Associates, or RCAs, before they become full time carriers. I served seven years as an RCA, substituting on other routes before I became a regular employee. There are those in our office that have spent eleven years as a substitute; as a substitute there is no guaranteed salary, no health benefits, no annual or sick leave. Many subs work extra jobs to support their families until a route becomes open. And when a route does become available, the time spent as an RCA does not count toward retirement.
Senator ________, the contracting out of mail delivery prevents the creation of new rural routes and thus takes jobs away from RCAs, from people who’ve worked for years to become regular carriers.
Perhaps the most treasured benefit of working for the Postal Service—or any employer, for that matter—is the peace of mind that comes with earning a pension. And pensioners rely on active employees to fund their benefits. The rural craft is not only the most profitable craft working for the Postal Service, but it is also the fastest growing. If future rural routes are replaced with independent contractors that do not pay into retirement, how can the pension system remain viable?
Contract routes that encroach upon territory normally reserved for rural routes would essentially cap our growth and create a dilemma in which the number of rural retirees would eventually exceed the number of active rural carriers, making it difficult or impossible to fund future retiree benefits.
While contractors who submit winning bids for mail routes undergo background checks, these contractors rarely perform the work themselves and usually subcontract the actual delivery work to others who may or may not undergo background checks. Already there are numerous instances of independent contractors stealing, destroying, and tampering with citizens’ mail; considering the rise of identity theft, anthrax, and the constant vigilance needed to fight a global war on terror the security of our mail should not be left in the hands of non-vetted individuals.
I believe the postal service has every right to lower costs so that it can provide our services at reasonable prices. And the contracting out of city and rural routes does, on the surface at least, offer a much cheaper model of delivery. But contracting out undermines the entire system by reducing mail security, threatening our ability to fund retiree pensions, and by needlessly punishing those whom we depend on—the RCAs who patiently wait in line for their chance to become regular carriers.
I urge you, Senator ________, to help these hard working people, and lend your support to S. 1457. I have enclosed a signature sheet with our offices’ employee names, titles, and respective years of service. I appreciate your efforts and look forward to hearing a response from your office.
Sincerely,