Every branch president has been mailed a Route Protection Program package including:

• A cover letter from NALC Headquarters
• An errata letter with 10 replacement pages for Chapter One
• Chapter Two, Route Examination and Adjustment for NALC Representatives
• Chapter Three, The Minor Route Adjustment Process
• NALC's Route Protection Program Pocket Handbook
• Three binder tabs to separate the three chapters.

Chapter One of the NALC's new Route Protection Program has been mailed to every branch president in the country. Additional chapters will soon follow addressing other route evaluation and adjustment issues.

Chapter One is intended primarily for an audience of letter carriers whose routes are scheduled for a formal six day count and inspection.It contains instructions on filling out the Form 1838-C Worksheet during the week of inspection, a brief outline of how management evaluates and adjusts routes, and advice on how to ensure that the results of the evaluation and adjustment are fair and accurate.

Chapter One will be a useful resource for the union leadership as they conduct training for their members as they are scheduled for route inspections.

Postal management has notified the NALC of its intent to withdraw unilaterally from USPS-NALC Memorandums that mandated local management and union leaders to work out agreements on route inspections.

NALC President William H. Young decried the move and called it a major blow to improved labor-management relations in the Postal Service. He noted that this comes at a time when close cooperation is essential as Congress prepares to resume consideration of postal reform legislation.

The NALC and the Postal Service reached an agreement on August 4, 2004 which provides a rare opportunity for the parties at the local level to evaluate and adjust routes using any locally agreed upon method.

The agreement also maintains the National Task Force which will continue its efforts to create a new process for inspecting and adjusting routes.

Additionally, the agreement places a moratorium on all unilateral route inspections and adjustments except as noted in the memorandum.

On May 4, 2004 the work of a national task force with representatives from the NALC, the Postal Service, and the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) resulted in a process agreement which establishes committees to review all outstanding city/rural cases (M-01519) .

Each committee will be comprised of one representative each from the NALC, the NRLCA, and the USPS. Additionally, the parties have established guideline principles to be applied by the committees while reviewing and resolving the assigned cases (M-01520). The guideline principles are separated into four categories for application by the committees, with the understanding that the national task force will address any issues that may remain. As needed, the task force will establish a process to address any unresolved issues, including tripartite arbitration for any interpretive issues.

NALC President Bill Young and Director of City Delivery Fred Rolando are pleased to announce the resolution of two issues regarding city vs. rural delivery.

In a May 9, 2003 Settlement Agreement resolving the Cary, North Carolina dispute where management had unilateraly converted deliveries from city to rural, the parties agreed to specific boundaries and the subsequent conversion of deliveries from rural to city consistent with National Arbitrator Nolan's awards (C-18997, C-22742).

In conjunction with that settlement, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, and the Postal Service have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding which establishes a joint task force to expedite resolution of the backlog of held grievances on all city/rural jurisdictional disputes.