At midnight on May 20, the contract between the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) and United States Postal Service (USPS) expired. The three-year span of that agreement saw historic sellouts by the union bureaucracy to USPS administrators and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. As part of the sweeping Delivering for America restructuring plan (DFA), a new Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS) slashed wages by thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars for most rural carriers.
The next contract, covering nearly 130,000 workers, is an opportunity for rural carriers to mobilize a rank-and-file rebellion to fight the destruction of the post office, which is being carried out with the support of both big-business parties and the postal union bureaucracy.