The United States Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association ended their talks on Saturday at an impasse, putting the future of more than 100,000 employees in jeopardy. The Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union, which represents around 220,000 employees, agreed to continue talks until Tuesday. The NRLCA said that the proposals from the Postal Service included wage freezes and benefit cuts that they were not willing to accept. The Postal Service says that the cuts are necessary to reduce their budget deficit, which totaled $8.5 billion last fiscal year. The Postal Service said that if deals are not reached, a third party may be brought in to determine the terms of the contracts. The workers will continue to work under their old contracts until new ones are reached.
See "Postal Service, unions fail to reach new agreements", Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post, November 21, 2010