With their contract set to expire in May, Tucson letter carriers gathered outside the Sun Station post office, demanding higher wages, safer working conditions and faster paths to career status.

The Feb. 22 event was organized by Branch 704 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, with dozens of members taking part in the picket.

The demonstration was part of a larger nationwide action by the NALC urging the United States Postal Service to negotiate a fair contract before the current agreement expires. The NALC is made up of 205,000 active members.

“The main purpose (of the picket) is just to inform the public that letter carriers deliver first class service, and we deserve first class pay,” said Alexis Padilla, acting president of NALC Branch 704. “The big thing is just to inform the public that you know what we deserve a fair contract. Whether in any working condition, whether it's blizzard, heat, snow, a pandemic, letter carriers deliver every single day of the day. We just want to be paid for the services that we provide.”

Letter carriers are asking for an increase in starting and current wages, citing longer working hours, varying elements and conditions and the increasing number of parcels processed by the post office every day.

Mail carriers deliver 376 million pieces of mail and packages daily to nearly 169 million delivery points nationwide.

“We're also looking for improved working conditions, because, again, the job is more strenuous than it ever is,” Padilla said. “Every single day of a letter carrier's job that they do is scrutinized, and for every reason, it just makes the job more stressful than what it needs to be.”

Working conditions in recent years have also increased occupational hazards and the risk of violence for mail carriers.

In June 2023, Dallas letter carrier Eugene Gates Jr. collapsed and died from a heat-related illness while working his route on a day when the heat index measured between the upper 90s and lower 100s.

USPS said in a statement to KXXV that 34% of current postal vehicles have air conditioning, but an employee from Gates’ post office reported that none of the 80 mail trucks had functioning air conditioning.

Last November, military veteran and USPS employee Nicholas John Acker died after becoming trapped in a conveyor belt at a distribution facility in Michigan. In January, three people were arrested for assaulting two USPS workers on their routes in Fresno, one incident involving a chokehold and another involving threats with a knife.

Jeffery Davis, a union steward for the largest mail station in Tucson, said employees have put themselves in dangerous situations to meet work quotas.

“A lot of people don't know the lengths that management will go to in order to get their numbers done,” Davis said. “There's instances where we had a carrier who got hit by a bus, he ended up dying, and management didn't even go through the trouble of doing a stand up or anything about this person.”

He said management attempted to call the carrier and later learned he had died but continued operations without formally acknowledging his passing. The employee, Ronnie, had worked for the Postal Service for about 20 years.

The union is also seeking to shorten the time it takes for carriers to reach the top of the pay scale and to establish an all-career workforce, meaning positions would be filled by permanent employees with benefits rather than temporary, noncareer staff.

Mike Willits, a NALC union steward, trains new USPS employees, including city carrier assistants, a noncareer USPS position that often acts as a substitute for regular carriers.

“They're not completely fully in the post office yet, and they really get treated differently,” Willits said. “They make less money than we do. They're working seven day weeks. They don't necessarily know when they're going to get a day off, even if they have it scheduled, it can change that morning.”

Willits described a case in which a city carrier assistant was terminated for failing to report to a shift that had been scheduled with little notice.

Willits said the employee had not received a schedule and was not told to report to work that day. According to Willits, the assistant said supervisors typically called daily with instructions on where to go or whether to come in, but on that day no call came — and after taking the day off, he was told he was being fired.

The NALC is also urging USPS to address staffing shortages and high turnover rates. According to the union, 55% of noncareer letter carriers leave their positions within a year, and union leaders argue that improving retention would help ensure continuous and reliable service.

“They've been treating (city carrier assistants) as just turnstile employees, just burning and turning through them,” said NALC steward Frederick Truong. “We have a high turnover rate on (city carrier assistants) because you have management that's harassing, aggressive, telling them to do unsafe things.”

Beyond delivering mail, carriers play an important role in supporting the neighborhoods they serve in other ways.

“We're taking care of people's houses. On one of my routes, I actually saw a door open, and it's people that I knew were snowbirds. They weren't here for the summer,” Willits said. “I called the police, they came, and there were four people with a campfire in their living room.”

Willits said carriers act as an unofficial neighborhood watch.

“We know that something's wrong in the neighborhood because we see that house six days a week,” Willits said.

The NALC’s final request is for an increase in the uniform allowance due to rising uniform prices. Career city letter carriers receive an annual uniform allowance of $499 to use as needed. Unused funds do not carry over to the next year.

City carrier assistants become eligible to purchase uniforms after 90 workdays or 120 calendar days of employment and receive a letter of authorization within 14 days of becoming eligible.

A handful of local politicians appeared at the picket lines to show their support. Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva spoke about the union’s current contract, stressing the need for an agreement that reflects the essential work letter carriers do daily.

“Letter carriers are not asking for special treatment,” Grijalva said. “You're asking for fair wages, fair working conditions and a contract that reflects the value of your work. It doesn't pay you your worth, and it's unfair and unsustainable. It's about respect. It's about safety. It's about the future of public service in America. Your work moves America.”

Councilwoman Miranda Schubert attended the picket at the USPS Sun Station, which is located in the Ward 6 district she represents.

“I had to be here to support our letter carriers because they're providing an essential service,” Schubert said. “I talked to a retired letter carrier … about how nowadays it's much harder for workers to find jobs that they can stay in for 40 years and take care of their families.”

Schubert said it’s important to show up to strikes and picket lines and to build up unions and their workers.

She said it is important to support actions like the picket and strengthen unions in order to shift workplace standards back toward employers taking better care of their workers, arguing that such changes are key to addressing broader challenges.

USPS opened contract negotiations with the union last Wednesday.

“We are very appreciative of our long history of good faith bargaining, and we look forward to continuing that over the course of the coming weeks and months,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement.

Locally, union leaders echoed that message while stressing the stakes for both workers and the public.

“The public relies (on these) essential services every day, and in turn, we need a fair contract to rely on,” Padilla said.

Topacio “Topaz” Servellon is a reporter with Tucson Spotlight. Contact them at topacioserve@gmail.com.

Tucson Spotlight is a community-based newsroom that provides paid opportunities for students and rising journalists in Southern Arizona. Please consider supporting our work with a tax-deductible donation.