Protection For Your Pocketbook
Everywhere you turn prices are soaring. Food, clothing, fuel, housing, are all moving upward by leaps and bounds. These increases are causing great problems both at home and in the business world. Inflation is causing personal deflation and depression in the real world.
Fortunately, the NALC is one of only a few unions that have a cost of living (COLA) protection against inflation. What this means is that when inflation rises our wages rise. Maybe not in lockstep with inflation but it helps our members survive. This is a major benefit to all NALC career members. Since the new contract was ratified last year, we have collected 5 COLAs for a total of $4035.00. This money is added to your salary and impacts not only your biweekly paycheck but also your retirement. Very few unions have this benefit. Those that do have some sort of COLA, has them capped at certain percentages. The NALC COLA is considered an uncapped COLA. There is no maximum ceiling to the amount of money when we receive the COLA. The upcoming 6th COLA will be received the second full pay period following the release of the July 2022 consumer price index. After only 1 month in, the next COLA already sits at $395 and we still have 5 months left, so this could be another barnburner.
CCA’s do not receive COLAs because they are not considered career employees. They do receive 1% more than career carriers when we receive pay raises each November. It must be pointed out that even though they do not receive current COLAs, they do benefit by the fact that when they do get promoted to career status, they receive their new salaries inclusive of all past COLAs.
Nobody wants to see skyrocketing inflation. It hurts the economy as well as family life. We should thank the union for negotiating the COLA language in our contracts and have not budged in giving any of it back. The USPS took away front line managements rights to COLAs back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Think about all the money they have lost in that time. Money that would have counted towards their monthly retirement checks. Hundreds of dollars a month for the rest of their lives. I know because one of my relatives fell into this situation. When he retired, he was stunned at what he lost due to the COLA being stolen from him. We do not have that problem. I am grateful for the foresight that our past presidents had in protecting the membership and the uncapped COLAs we receive. Even when we received no COLA, we are ahead of the curve. Over the past 40 years, the total COLAs received has matched or exceed the totality of our pay raises. Because of the COLA we may be sitting close to or exceeding a $74,000 top step salary at the end of this current contract. Never give up the COLA!
