Postal Service, Unions Agree on New Pact

The U.S. Postal Service and its two biggest unions reached tentative agreement today on a new 40-month labor contract after round-the-clock negotiations that extended well past the midnight expirations of their contracts, a union leader said.

Moe Biller, president of the American Postal Workers Union, announced the settlement in a union hot-line message to union members.

A Postal Service spokesman said there would be an announcement before the end of the day.

Biller said the proposed contract includes a 2% salary increase this year, followed by a $500 increase in 1988, a $600 increase in 1989 and a $200 increase in 1990.

Biller said the tentative agreement, which runs from July 21, 1987, to Nov. 20, 1990, was reached at 11:30 a.m. after a 23-hour bargaining session.

Biller said the new agreement would generally continue cost-of-living adjustments and health benefits that were included in the expired contract.

Biller and Vincent Sombrotto, head of the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, negotiated with the Postal Service for the contract covering 579,000 employees.

The tentative plan is a significant compromise for the unions, who were seeking a 4.5% wage increase in each year of a new three-year deal, down from an earlier demand of a 6.8% raise. The Postal Service was offering an average annual raise of 1.6%, union officials said.

There was no immediate word on a major sticking point in the negotiations: the Postal Service’s use of “casual workers”--temporaries who are paid much less than full-time employees. The Postal Service had wanted to double the number of casual workers employed.

According to the Postal Service, clerk letter carriers now earn between $20,094 and $27,089 a year, excluding fringe benefits.