ABQ Times

DeJoy and USPS leadership did not communicate the projected pay cut to rank and file workers or study the new policy’s potential effect on worker recruitment and retention

WASHINGTON—On May 17, 2023, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01), a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Workforce, sought answers from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about a new policy that cut pay for 66% of rural mail carriers.

The Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System, a new compensation formula for rural mail carriers, has reduced pay. Tasked with the mission of serving every address in New Mexico and the nation, rural mail carriers are currently understaffed and overworked, conditions projected to worsen under DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan.

“Our postal workers are members of our communities. They need a living wage. They need safe working conditions, we need to ensure the livelihoods of our communities,” said Rep. Stansbury. “And part of the job as a federal agency is to ensure that we are adequately paying and ensuring the safety and safe working conditions of our workers.”

Rep. Stansbury’s remarks as delivered are below.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member. And thank you, Mr. DeJoy for being here with us today.

I want to start out by thanking all of our USPS staff, I see some of your staff sitting behind you. But of course, all of our postal workers and letter carriers not only in my district, but across the country who day in day out, deliver the mail across all of our communities, and are really the backbone of our communities.

I represent New Mexico's first Congressional District, which includes the Albuquerque metro area, and over half dozen rural communities and issues around rural postal service are really crucial for the communities that I represent.

In particular, as we've been heading into this hearing, we've been hearing from a lot of our letter carriers about issues around new policies that the Postal Service is implementing around rural compensation.

And so I want to focus my attention especially on these issues. The first question I want to ask you, Mr. DeJoy, is how much consultation the Postal Service did with rank and file rural letter carriers before deciding to implement this policy?

Mr. DeJoy: The recent policy on rural carrier pay adjustment? Yes. About 10 years worth?

Rep. Stansbury: Can you please characterize that because what we heard from folks who work in our district is that they didn't find out about it until it was actually being implemented.

DeJoy: So the, this was a decision that was made in 2012, through arbitration between the union and the Postal Service. And we worked for seven, eight, I think, by 2019, we had the structure of it decided how it was going to be rolled out, we did a sampling that year of 4000 routes, and came up with some adjustments that needed to be made.

And then in consultation with the union, our HR department, we began to roll the process out to you know, across the nation. So from my I don't know that every single detail detail as to how this got communicated, but it wasn't, I can't imagine it wasn't effectively communicated to everybody. Now the result of it is, you know, is unfortunate the results, because a lot of it has resulted in the aggregation of mail decline over 10 years, impacting the overall carrier, you know, one one shot,

Rep. Stansbury: Mr. DeJoy, you know, I think among the many concerns, in addition to in fact, what you just highlighted about not knowing how it was communicated down to the rank and file is the impact that it's going to have on rural carrier pay? Are you aware that 66% of our carriers are actually going to lose pay in their paychecks because of this adjustment?

Mr. DeJoy: Yes, I am. And what I said was, I mean, I'm aware of my HR department and the union representatives working to deliver the message across the ranks of the organization. I'm not aware of the specific detail of what they were set. And yes,

Rep. Stansbury: Mr. DeJoy, I apologize for interrupting, but because there's short time, you know, I think that something of this significance, that's going to affect 66% of our rural carriers and rural coverage of our mail service, certainly the tone gets at the top and how that gets communicated. It affects the livelihoods of our carriers, it affects our communities, it affects local economies. So my question is, in addition to improving communications with our, with the staff of the Postal Service, what plans has USPS put into place to ensure that this doesn't affect recruitment and retention of carriers as well as actual service delivery in our rural areas?

Mr. DeJoy: So we, we have worked with a union union leadership, and we are continuing with our recruiting aspects which have been significantly enhanced. I don't believe that the not to minimize anything. I don't believe the cut is 60% on it, and I believe that all the participants what we're told and known that this has been coming. It's an unfortunate consequence. But on the same token, you know, we need to align the compensation for the work that is being done and that's in fact what--

Rep. Stansbury: Well, I appreciate your business approach to the solvency issues of the Postal Service. Our postal workers are members of our communities. They need a living wage. They need safe working conditions, we need to ensure the livelihoods of our communities.

And part of the job as a federal agency is to ensure that we are adequately paying and ensuring the safety and safe working conditions of our workers. And I do want to note that the issues that Mr. Casar brought up are systemic because I hear about them every day of our postal workers, unsafe working conditions, crime issues, being out alone, long hours, not enough postal workers.

And so, these policy changes that are being implemented at the top and not adequately communicated and consulted with the rank and file letter carriers are a problem in our communities.

And so, Mr. DeJoy, I appreciate your service. But it's crucial that we make sure that our postal workers on the ground have a voice that they're communicated with clearly and that we're supporting our postal workers. And with that, I yield back.

Issues: Community Well-Being Congress Economy and Jobs 

Original source can be found here.