U.S. Postal Service proposals to freeze wages, cut benefits for current career employees, and create a lower wage scale for new hires are among factors that led to an impasse Saturday in contract talks with the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, according to an announcement to union members obtained by Federal Times.

The union had countered with what it termed “appropriate and reasonable wage increases, continued cost-of-living adjustments and the maintenance of core benefits,” the document said. The union had also advanced “several proposals that would have resulted in substantial savings for the Postal Service,” it said.

full story: Federal Times

Postalreporter Reader: The NRLCA’s final proposals provided for appropriate and reasonable wage increases, continued cost-of-living adjustments, and the maintenance of core benefits. The NRLCA advanced its own proposals to adjust certain time allowances in the evaluated compensation system and to increase the reimbursement that many rural letter carriers receive for providing a delivery vehicle on rural routes. Importantly, the Union made several proposals that would have resulted in substantial savings for the Postal Service.