This USPS mail carrier in Phoenix says he's never seen morale so low

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers have opened contract negotiations to try to come up with a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Eric Gregorovic said the talks are in the very early stages and can take from six to eight months up to two to three years.

Gregorovic is state president for the Arizona State Association of Letter Carriers and is an active letter carrier.

He joined The Show to talk about this and started with what in his mind are the main points of contention in these negotiations.

Edmundo Sanchez

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Full conversation

ERIC GREGOROVIC: We are looking for first class pay. We provide first class service. We need first class pay. We also need an all career workforce. When we start out at the Postal Service, we're started out as basically temp employees. They're called contract employees. We don't get the full benefits.

MARK BRODIE: How far away from first class pay would you say you are at this point?

GREGOROVIC: That's a tough one. It is. It will be up to the membership to decide.

BRODIE: So what are you hearing from your members in terms of sort of how they're doing and how morale is and all that stuff right now?

GREGOROVIC: Morale is, it's declined quite a bit over the last few years. We see a, I believe it was reported 55% attrition rate for new carriers in their first year, which is absolutely horrific for any employer.

BRODIE: That's more than half.

GREGOROVIC: Right. And being able to keep these new hires, I believe the career, starting them out with full benefits, a higher starting rate would help that.

BRODIE: Is that the main reason you think so many of them are leaving, that they're not getting paid enough and they're not getting benefits?

GREGOROVIC: Not getting paid enough. Not getting benefits. Too many hours. And if you can't keep the people then you're going to be forced to work more hours.

BRODIE: Yeah. In terms of like there's just too much mail to deliver in a standard eight hour shift.

GREGOROVIC: Correct. Too much mail or just not enough people to go around.

BRODIE: Have you seen that there are not enough letter carriers in the Phoenix area?

GREGOROVIC: I am on the overtime desired list, so I normally work 55 to 60 hours a week.

BRODIE: Wow.

GREGOROVIC: But even when I was hired 12 years ago, they said, you're coming in as a part time employee. Expect to work 60 hours a week.

BRODIE: As a part time employee.

GREGOROVIC: As a part time employee.

BRODIE: Wow.

GREGOROVIC: How is this a part time job?

BRODIE: Yeah. So you mentioned that you've been at the USPS for 12 years. Have you seen other times where morale has been kind of as low as it is right now?

GREGOROVIC: No, this is new. This is new to me. The general consensus of providing the services is not what it should be.

BRODIE: How so?

GREGOROVIC: Management is very focused on the numbers. So what percentage did you get completed? Make your eight hours. It should only take you eight hours to do this.

BRODIE: To do your particular route.

GREGOROVIC: Correct. And if you have elevated volumes or some other instances on the route, then it may not be possible.

BRODIE: What is it like delivering mail in the Phoenix area? And I'm especially interested, you know, in the times of year when it's not super pleasant to be outside.

GREGOROVIC: Or when it's hot. Summer for the nine months of the year that we have in Phoenix, it is brutal. When I first started, I had one of the standard LLVs, the long life vehicles, probably 20, 30 years old then. And it was mounted. So I would drive from house to house delivering. And at one point I said, you know what, I'm just going to get out, put on the satchel, carry all the mail and walk it.

BRODIE: Wow.

GREGOROVIC: And the customers were like, where's the truck? I was like, I left it back there. It's cooler outside than it is to be in that truck.

BRODIE: And those trucks did not and do not have air conditioning.

GREGOROVIC: Correct. You have a 6-inch fan to help circulate the hot air, and they get upwards of 140 degrees, 145 in the summer.

BRODIE: Wow. So is there a plan to try to get carriers trucks that have AC in places like Phoenix, where it's 140 degrees in a truck in the summer?

GREGOROVIC: We do have some new vehicles forthcoming at my station. We have the electric chargers put in. We are waiting for the green light from the electric company to allow us to bring in the vehicles and be able to charge them. That facility is probably 50, 60 years old at least. So getting the power into it is the main hurdle right now.

BRODIE: What kind of impact have you seen sort of, you know, on the ground level delivering mail from sort of this explosion of ecommerce?

GREGOROVIC: We see a lot more packages, a ton more. As opposed to 10, 15 years ago where our primary focus was delivering letters, magazines, flats. Now we're seeing a much more physical job where we're delivering a lot more packages. We provide last mile service for UPS, FedEx. We do a lot of Amazon packages as well.

BRODIE: Is that part of the negotiation? Trying to work in some kind of accommodations for the increase in packages and sort of the different types of mail that you're now delivering?

GREGOROVIC: Right. That is again, it's a more physical job. We're looking to for pay to compensate.

BRODIE: Given where the country is in terms of its, you know, the amount of money it has and, you know, efforts to sort of streamline the federal government, how optimistic are you that you'll be able to get the kind of pay increase you're looking for?

GREGOROVIC: The USPS is in dire straits, as has been reported. The NALC has been trying to rectify this through Congress for many years, decades. We had the Postal Reform Act passed that took about 10 years to get through Congress. That alleviated the Postal Service from having to pay into the retirement fund up to 75 years in advance, which no other corporation in America had to do.

What we're looking at now to better the Postal Services finances, we have the line of credit. It hasn't been increased since the '80s, $15 billion line of credit, it's been maxed for a few years now, but again, it hasn't been increased since the '80s. Our retirement plans can only be invested in treasury bonds, which is absolutely insane.

BRODIE: Do you think that you'll be able to get what you're looking for through these negotiations, absent some of those other changes that you're talking about in terms of being able to free up more money for USPS?

GREGOROVIC: I think it's going to be tough. I think it's going to be tough. But again, the carriers provide the service which the USPS has to provide. USPS has the universal service obligation. The carriers provide that service.