Charlotte postal workers: ‘All we want is a fair contract’

MATT LACZKO | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Sylvin Stevens, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 545, rallies with postal workers Feb. 22, 2026, in Charlotte. Postal workers demand better pay and workplace protections in their next contract with the U.S. Postal Service.

Postal workers want first-class pay for first-class work.

Charlotte employees lined Park Road Sunday as part of a national rally for better compensation from the U.S. Postal Service. Mail handlers and letter carriers, who are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, want USPS to approve an across-the-board pay boost as well as remove wage disparities that disadvantage employees hired after Feb. 15, 2013. Workers who were hired before that date generally have higher hourly rates and fewer obstacles to top pay – which is now 15.5 years. 

“All we want is a fair contract that keeps up with the rate of inflation,” said Sylvin Stevens, president of NALC Branch 545 in Charlotte. “Right now, we're falling way behind the rate of inflation. …
“There’s a two-tier workforce. There’s Table 1 and a Table 2, and it shouldn’t be. It should be all one pay scale work … but a lot of the newer carriers that were hired after 2013 [on] Table 2 puts them at a lower starting wage, and it takes them longer to get up to that wage.”

Another issue is workplace safety. Stevens, who has worked for USPS for 37 years, cited increasing threats employees face on their routes as more parcels go out for delivery. 

“It’s getting more dangerous with this job,” he said. “Carriers are being robbed at gunpoint. As a matter of fact, just as recent as Feb. 12, almost … a city letter carrier in Decatur, Georgia, …was murdered while at work. We don’t know the circumstances, if it was a theft or anything, but I’m certain there are a lot of perpetrators out there trying to get carriers for packages of value and the arrow key that the letter carriers carry, because the arrow key is a universal key that opens up every mailbox where that key has use.” 

The workers’ demands are part of a long-term debate about retention, workforce stability, and equity at USPS. Newer carriers often receive fewer benefits despite performing the same duties as more experienced employees, and turnover is higher among non-career employees.

According to NALC, newer and veteran workers receive cost-of-living adjustments and general wage increases, with updates in 2023–25. The national contract expires in May.

“Union means togetherness,” said Marcelle Vielot, an organizer with the Metrolina Labor Council. “The key here is that all working people are able to work with dignity, are able to be paid fair wages, and also are able to get home safely. That’s what collective bargaining does. We can’t insure against every issue that could possibly pop up in the workplace, every hazard, but if we collectively bargain, we can be able to minimize these types of instances, allow us to have a safer working and more equitable working environment.”

Organized labor is undergoing a renaissance nationally, including the South, which has resisted worker-led movements dating to the 1800s. Black workers have historically been foundational to organized labor and in 2025 had a union membership rate of 11.4% – which surpasses white (9.9%), Asian (8.7%), and Hispanic (8.9%) workers. Black Americans, especially women, have emerged as leaders in modern union leadership and organizing. At the Park Road rally, the gathering of postal workers was overwhelmingly Black.

“I will say that Black folks have always been president in the labor movement,” Vielot said. “In fact, statistically, Black folks are more likely to unionize than any other demographic. We may be a smaller portion of the labor movement, but our likelihood to be a member of a union is higher than anybody else. We know for generations of fighting, how important it is for us to be able to collectively bargain, to be able to advocate for ourselves, and to be able to know that we are not fighting any sort of workplace issues by ourselves. We know that there is strength in unity.”

Stevens, NALC’s local president since 2016, said postal service compensation hasn’t kept pace with USPS’s evolution as a business, and employees want a better deal.

“I’ve seen all the changes – the growth, the volume of mail decrease, the volume of packages increase,” he said. “We’re seeing a different fluctuation, just like any company. “There are times when there’s plenty and there’s times when there’s not plenty, but at the end of the day, the Postal Service is a company that the American public relies on, and the American public wants us to deliver to every household that has an address.”

Comments