‘We really need a more livable wage’: Postal workers picket in Peru Illinois

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https://www.shawlocal.com/illinois-vall ... t-in-peru/

Postal workers across Illinois Valley ask for increased pay, 40-hour workweeks

Stagnant wages. Mandatory overtime. Cost-of-living increases that aren’t keeping up with inflation. Postal workers say they are tired, overworked and underpaid.

Hoping for a better deal when negotiations begin this week, about two dozen postal workers gathered Sunday outside the Peru Post Office. They wore T-shirts reading “Fight like hell!” and waved signs clamoring for support from the public.

“We’re standing in solidarity to get everybody, across the board, better wages and working conditions at the post office,” said Candis Brands, a resident of Bureau but also a steward at the Spring Valley Post Office for Branch 219 at the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Brands and other postal workers responded to an appeal by the NALC to hold “Fight Like Hell!” rallies calling before the NALC opens contract negotiations with the U.S. Postal Service on Feb. 25.

“Our wages, they just haven’t kept up with inflation in the past contract cycles,” said Devin Broderick, vice president of NALC Branch 219. “We’re out here every day, so we think we deserve it.”

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