The largest US postal union, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), has signed upleading advisors to ensure it gets a say in any restructuring of the US Postal Service.
The union, representing 280,000 urban mail delivery workers, announced the retention ofinvestment bank Lazard Group, LLC as well as Ron Bloom, a former advisor to President Barack Obamafor Manufacturing Policy, as financial advisors. Bloom helped turn around General Motors andChrysler in 2009.
NALC president Fredric V. Rolando announced the move to 1,500 regional and local NALC leadersgathered in a national conference to consider the current USPS financial crisis and the long-termstrategic, structural and business challenges facing the USPS. The union opposes many of the USPSmanagement’s cost-saving plans, including large-scale job losses, network downsizing and fiverather than six deliveries a week.
“The nation’s letter carriers are committed to preserving six-day-a-week universal postalservices to every address in every village, town and city of the nation. NALC and our financialadvisors are prepared to work cooperatively with the USPS, the Congress, the White House and allother postal stakeholders and constituencies to resolve current cash flow and financial issues anddevelop a viable long-term, pro-growth business plan for the Postal Service,” Rolando declared.
“Our efforts will be fact-based, non-political, non-ideological, and focused on the continuedprovision of universal service to the public and the preservation of hundreds of thousands of goodmiddle-class jobs. We are confident that Lazard and Mr. Bloom, both of whom have extensiveexperience helping to revitalize numerous large and complex business enterprises around the world,can provide valuable assistance to all stakeholders who share our commitment to maintaining andgrowing this vital national resource.”
The NALC is currently engaged in collective bargaining with the USPS. The current five-yearcollective bargaining agreement expires on November 20, 2011.
