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Platform of the Rhine-Peralta Team

The Change You Deserve, The Experience We Need

Introduction: Turning the Page on Four Years of Division with New National Leadership and a Team of Skilled Candidates

The past four years have been difficult for our union. The lack of communication and transparency from the office of the President with both the Executive Council and the rest of our members has caused division within the NALC. This division has been further fueled by online misinformation and conflict. We need to change. The Rhine-Peralta Team provides both the change in our union’s top leadership and the experience we need to unify our great union to turn the page on this difficult era. 

 

The next four years will be among the most challenging in our union’s history. President Trump is waging a war on the labor movement in general and on federal unions in particular. We have effectively fought back. But the Postmaster General, who is a former FedEx board member, is signaling major service cuts and layoffs in 2027 – and the Postal Regulatory Commission is calling for a re-evaluation of the Postal Service’s Universal Service Obligation. Additionally, the attacks on our retired members’ annuities and health care benefits will only intensify. 

 

NALC is the only postal union with the power and resources to defeat these efforts by mobilizing the public, the media, the mailing industry, and our allies in the labor movement to resist and build a better future for the Postal Service, its employees, and its retirees. But only if we elect a united team of skilled and experienced leaders. And only if our union works together and unifies around a clear agenda. 

 

We are that team and this platform provides that agenda.

Our Collective Bargaining Agenda

Working  for our members in negotiations with management will be our top priority.

 

  • If no arbitrator is selected before the union election, and the duty to conduct an interest arbitration for the 2026 contract falls to the Rhine-Peralta Team, we will immediately work to appoint the best possible neutral arbitrator and then, using all the resources at our disposal, put on the  best case possible.

 

  • In the arbitration for the 2026 contract and any succeeding round of bargaining, we will fight for a National Agreement that features:

 

  • A single pay table with higher starting and top pay with a combination of fewer steps, shorter waiting times for step increases, and full COLAs

  • The phase out of the CCA position in favor of an all-career workforce

  • Significantly improved uniform allowances and the elimination of the current uniform allowance system -- after which the Postal Service will be solely responsible for providing uniforms

  • Increased USPS contributions for health insurance premiums to reverse the trend of cost shifting to employees

  • The end of all forced overtime in violation of our contract

  • Stronger enforcement of the Joint Statement on Violence (JSOV) and Behavior in the Workplace

  • Language in Article 15 establishing:

  • A streamlined process for compliance with make-whole remedies; 

  • Strict timeframes for compliance with signed settlements, along with mandatory escalating compensatory remedies for violations of those settlements;

  • A requirement that all pre-arbitration settlements be precedent-setting, creating an incentive for management to resolve disputes at Step B since there would no longer be a subsequent non-precedent setting step; and

  • Giving JSOV, limited duty, light duty, and safety grievances priority consideration in the grievance-arbitration process

  • We will pursue an improved Joint Route Inspection Process with equal access to route data that produces fair adjustments based on each carrier’s demonstrated ability. The process must allow for grieving violations of the Joint Process and provide such grievances priority consideration to ensure timely resolution.

  • We will file a national-level grievance to force the Postal Service to live up to its contractual commitments to adequately staff and repair the broken grievance and arbitration process with the aim of eliminating the backlog of cases and ensuring full compliance with our contract with these remedies:

  • Activating every Step B back-up team immediately across the country to address backlogs at Step B

  • Hiring more arbitrators and getting agreement on more dates for every region

  • Scheduling as many cases for each arbitration date as possible

  • Training more NALC advocates and Step B representatives to ensure sufficient availability

  • We must pressure  USPS to fully take advantage of the authority to offer state and local government services through USPS and find new ways to serve the public and their businesses even when letter-mail volume declines.

Restoring NALC Leadership on Vital Postal Legislation

Raising money for the Letter Carrier Political Fund and electing allies in both parties is crucially important. But it’s not enough. We must use our powerful grassroots army of rank-and-file members to fight for our legislative priorities in every state and every Congressional District, and NALC must once again lead the fight for the next round of postal reform legislation – as we have so many times before. Finding new ways to fund universal service are essential to secure the long-term job security of letter carriers and to improve our prospects in collective bargaining by restoring USPS to fiscal health.

  • We must develop a viable reform plan, amplify it with the media and the American public, recruit bipartisan allies to introduce the plan in Congress, and then mobilize tens of thousands of carriers to lobby their representatives and senators to pass it. This plan might include a variety of options:

  • Postal pension investment reform to permit the proper investment of the USPS’s $300 billion in retirement trust fund assets – a policy with widespread bipartisan support that would increase returns by $8-12 billion annually

  • A mandate to implement the PRC/Segal report’s CSRS pension valuation authorized by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 – transferring at least $110 billion to USPS retirement accounts 

  • Restoration of funding of the “public service” appropriation for rural service and small post offices authorized by current law – but unfunded since 1982

  • Restoration of indirect subsidies to USPS now worth more than $10 billion annually that were provided by the Postal Reorganization Act and that other federal agencies still receive today – including those covering retiree health benefits and pension amortization payments caused by the restrictive investment policies mandated by law

  • An increase in the Postal Service’s debt limit, last raised in 1992, to allow continued modernizing investments in USPS networks – merely indexing the 1992 limit to inflation would provide an additional $20 billion in borrowing authority

  • An extension of USPS authority to provide services to all federal agencies via Negotiated Service Agreements

  • We must expand and improve our grassroots power to achieve other important legislative goals for active letter carriers:

  • to improve letter carrier safety (Protect Our Letter Carriers Act); 

  • to allow carriers to make deposits to buy back retirement service credit (Federal Retirement Fairness Act); 

  • to extend paid parental leave benefits that other federal employees secured after the pandemic; 

  • to win equal COLA protection for FERS retirees (Equal COLA Act); 

  • and to expand Territorial COLA provisions to other high-cost cities and states, as directed by the delegates of the Los Angeles Convention

  • We must also continue to play effective defense on Capitol Hill to protect against proposals to reduce delivery days, downsize or deregulate the Postal Service, or to cut the health and pension benefits of our members -- active and retired alike.

Transparency, Communications, and Future Planning

We are committed to restoring open communications and civility within the Executive Council and improved transparency through more regular and consistent communications with the entire membership. And we will continue to train and invest in the next generation of leaders while pursuing opportunities to strengthen our union for the future.

  • Although the NALC Constitution rightly provides our elected president broad powers over spending on operations, we will restore the prior policy of submitting all major spending proposals to the Executive Council for approval. 

  • We will explore innovative ways to use current and emerging technologies to provide members with more up-to-date information, including podcasts, social media, virtual meetings, and an enhanced members-only portal and an improved NALC mobile app.

  • At the national and regional level, we will improve our oversight, communication, and accountability efforts with  the union’s Step B representatives:   

  • We will provide oversight and guidance to all Step B teams across the country to ensure that our members and branches receive consistent, educational, and contractually sound decisions. We will give our Step B representatives the tools, information, and guidance necessary to successfully fulfill their duties to the membership. 

  • We will prioritize continuing education and meetings for all Step B representatives and arbitration advocates to ensure everyone is on the same page and moving in same direction, and to give every grievance the best chance of success 

  • We will dedicate staff to develop and distribute grievance starters in real time  on emerging national issues

  • Develop training curriculum addressing real-time issues and upload the training to the members-only portal for  branches and those unable to attend in person.

  • We are committed to continuing the NALC Leadership Academy and other training programs to develop the future leadership of our union and to amplify and harness the activism of NALC’s members.

  • We will seek to modernize the rules of our national convention to improve the delegate experience. In Los Angeles we had to cancel more than a dozen workshops and many planned activities to deal with an increased volume of resolutions driven by a welcome surge in activism among our members. We will investigate ways to streamline the way we conduct teller votes using secure, electronic voting technology.

  • We will seek to re-open the dialogue begun by President Emeritus Rolando with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association on a friendly merger with a goal of raising pay for city and rural letter carriers alike and building a more powerful union – a subject to be discussed and debated in our next national convention.

Our Team Offers Unity, Broad Leadership Experience,and a Plan for the Future

Every candidate agrees that winning the best possible contract and enforcing it is Job #1. But that’s just the beginning. We must be able to operate simultaneously in multiple venues to protect our collective bargaining rights and our members’ interests – in Congress and the White House, within the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Labor Department, and across America. This requires a team of national leaders with broad expertise and headquarters experience.  We are that team. 

 

The Rhine/Peralta team has the know-how to advance this platform on Day One. Saying you will “fight” or promising to “go to interest arbitration” is not enough. Every negotiation requires a clear plan and the leverage necessary to secure results for city letter carriers. Our team will focus on executing our plan and taking the steps necessary to create leverage through legislation and collective bargaining to achieve the goals and priorities outlined in this platform. 

 

We believe in this platform and our vision for the future to move the NALC forward. Let’s turn the page on the past four years and  commit ourselves  to serve and protect every active and retired member of the NALC. Now is the time for unity and focus, not division and misinformation. 

 

The Rhine-Peralta Team respectfully asks you for your vote. Because we are better together. 

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