Region 5 NBA Report April 2025
By National Business Agent David Teegarden
Political News
Since my last NBA Report a lot has happened politically. Rallies across Region 5 and the country by letter carriers, postal employees, family members, Congressional members and customers took place on March23 rd . Region 5 rallies were very well attended even though there were some hiccups with signage and shirts not arriving on time. Thanks to Anthoney Mitchell the branch presidents and all branch organizers for planning and setting these events up. We proved it’s not about a free T-shirt it’s about protecting letter carrier jobs and the economy of our country. Thanks to all of you that attended and if you didn’t attend or couldn’t, more rallies are planned in the future so get involved and help save your own job.
Although the executive order moving the postal service to the Dept. of Commerce hasn’t materialized our political focus must still be on preserving the Postal Service. Despite numerous problems we deal with internally, like delivery standards, the Postal Service still receives one of the highest scores each year for federal employees. These internal issues must be fixed but we can’t fix them if we are privatized.
Since those rallies were held on March 23 rd a couple of key things have happened, PMG DeJoy has resigned effective March 24 th , 2025, and Board of Governor member Robert Duncan resigned effective March 27, 2025. There is a lot of chatter in online groups about whether DeJoy was placed in the job to destroy the Postal Service. A lot of us don’t like his S&DC or 10-year plan. Despite that there were actual savings from that plan, a 1.8 billion annual reduction in transportation costs and a 1 billion annual savings by shifting mail and package delivery from air to ground transportation.
The wrinkle in all of this is now we have 4 vacancies on the Board of Governors and a need to replace the PMG. There is no doubt that the current administration has an interest in who will fill those vacancies and that could shape the future of the Postal Service for years to come. This will most certainly test the resolve of the remaining governors on the board. Our friends in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are beginning to push back on the idea of privatization of the service. Simultaneously they are concerned with the current situation regarding delivery standards. Many members of Congress are calling for OIG investigations into mail processing and facilities and plants. There are numerous reports of significant delays in mail that are currently being investigated by our friends in Congress. For the time being they still believe in a public Postal Service, however, the threat has not passed us by, and we must continue to do what we can to make sure the Postal Service remains the great public institution it has always been.
The question I continue to ask, is there any reason why all USPS employees can’t get behind saving the Postal Service? If you are reading this, is there any reason you can’t get behind saving the Postal Service? If there is no reason you can’t get behind saving your own job, join us by getting involved in rallies, contacting members of Congress and joining the Letter Carrier Political Fund, even if only for a year or two until this threat passes, it could mean the difference between having a job or not.
HIPP Training and Grievances
I recently sent out HIPP information to the branch presidents of the region from Director of Safety and Health Manny Peralta. Awhile back we sent out HIPP grievance starters to your branch presidents as well. If you are in need of them or assistance on how to file grievances if you are not receiving the proper training, please contact us at the NBA office at 314-985-8040 and we will be happy to assist you.
Region 5 Training
We are in the process of planning Informal and Formal Steward College training. Once the dates and locations are determined we will get that out to the branch presidents for registration. We will also be conducting Arbitration Advocate training for the advocates in Region 5 sometime early this summer. In addition, we will have updated contract training at each of the State Conventions this spring and fall. We will continue our Route Count and Adjustment training that we put on twice last year so we can develop more specialists that can assist branches in assuring our members get fair route inspections and adjustments. We look forward to seeing you in our travels throughout the year.
In addition to the training, we will begin an initiative to assist branches with moving to an all-career model branch by branch in the region. Branch president will get a call from the NBA office to discuss. If you aren’t currently an all-career model office, please contact us and we can get started.
Until next time stay safe out there,
David A. Teegarden
National Business Agent
NALC Region 5