Body § 1.1 CIM6 2024

The NPMHU is the exclusive bargaining agent representing mail handlers and mail handler assistants employed by the U.S. Postal Service. It has been so recognized in accordance with the terms of the Postal Reorganization Act (PRA) of 1970, which transformed the federal government agency known as the “Post Office Department” into an independent establishment of the Government of the United States, the “United States Postal Service.” The PRA also granted bargaining-unit employees the right to bargain collectively with respect to “rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment.”

As the exclusive bargaining representative for all mail handlers, the NPMHU is the only organization that is entitled to represent mail handlers in their collective bargaining relationship with the Postal Service.

The other unions exclusively representing large, national groups of USPS craft employees are:

APWU or American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO: clerks, maintenance, motor vehicle, mail equipment shops and material distribution center employees;

NALC or National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO: city letter carriers; and

NRLCA or National Rural Letter Carriers Association: rural letter carriers.

The NPMHU and the unions representing other postal crafts all negotiated together and executed joint National Agreements with the U.S. Postal Service covering the periods 1971-73 and 1973-75. The NRLCA bargained separately for its 1975-78 Agreement and all agreements thereafter. The NPMHU remained in a jointly-bargained National Agreement with the APWU and NALC covering the periods 1975-78 and 1978-81. Beginning in 1981, and continuing to this day, the NPMHU has bargained separately for its own National Agreement. The APWU and NALC continued to bargain together as the Joint Bargaining Committee in 1981, 1984, 1987, and 1990, but have bargained separately since 1994. Presently, therefore, the four major postal unions have separate National Agreements with the Postal Service.