Kai is a rank and file member of NALC Branch 84 and Build A Fighting NALC (personal capacity)

I’m a trans woman letter carrier in the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Local Branch 84, and a member of Socialist Alternative. Like many young trans workers today, I’ve been looking to the labor movement for stable, well-paying work, greater job protections, and trans-inclusive healthcare.

Trump blames immigrants and trans people for the problems with the economy, and it’s had a dangerous effect of normalizing transphobia. Just a couple days after the recent presidential election, my manager called me into his office after a long day of work. The first thing he told me was that I was not allowed to use the women’s restroom. This surprised me, since I knew that none of my coworkers were told which bathroom they could or couldn’t use. I tried to reason with the manager, but he insisted, and suggested that maybe they could get me a Porta-Potty to use.

I got mad, and I got organized. When I walked out of his office, my next step was to reach out to my union siblings and get in touch with the union steward at the station. The next morning, I walked into my manager’s office with my union brother and steward at my side. We stood together and insisted that management respect my right to use the restroom of my choice. We won, and the manager backed down.

It is a dangerous and easily disproven slander that trans people pose any threat to cisgender (not trans) people in bathrooms and locker rooms. Trans people are far more likely to be victims of attacks in bathrooms or locker rooms than they are to attack anyone and are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be targeted for sexual violence or other forms of assault. Anti-trans bills like Rep. Mace’s, which would prohibit transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice in all federal buildings, only serve to increase this violence and intensify the discrimination already faced by transgender people.

Get The Bosses Out Of Our Bathrooms! End All Management Harassment!

Trans carriers are one of many targets for bullying managers on the shop floor. 

One of the goals of the postal bosses, like all the big bosses and the billionaire class in general, is to pit workers against each other. The frequent, almost everyday abuse and harassment that management piles on our heads isn’t just individual ‘bad managers’ or ‘the way it’s always been’—it’s the bosses’ strategy! So when that shitty supervisor tells our trans coworkers that they can’t use the restroom that is most comfortable for them, management isn’t looking out for our safety. They’re looking for ways to divide the union, bully some of us and play favorites with others. Because when workers are most divided, the bosses are strongest and can confidently levy discipline, enforce speedups, and starve workers with impunity.

If you hate bullies, then your only logical choice is to stand with workers against abusive management. Regardless of who their target is now, we know that if management gets away with treating any of us like shit, they’ll only get more confident and the pattern will continue. “An injury to one is an injury to all” is the classic motto of the labor movement because united we can win, and divided we can only lose. 

This starts with building a union that’s actually prepared to fight the boss—something the current leadership of NALC refuses to do. This culture of working with management permeates throughout our union. For example, at another station a trans worker was told she needed to use the men’s bathroom, and her shop steward sided with managers! That’s why I’m a member of Build A Fighting NALC (BFN), a growing rank and file movement to transform our union and win a strong contract. BFN is fighting for real gains for all letter carriers, including: 

• A $30/hr base wage because all workers deserve a living wage!

• An all-career workforce which eliminates the super-exploited CCA position. 

• An end to mandatory overtime

• Cutting the time to reach the top pay from 13 to 6 years

• Full COLAs (cost of living adjustments), not diet COLAs which don’t keep up with inflation.

• Eliminating the no-strike clause from our contract and lifting the ban on federal workers striking. We must arm ourselves with the most important and effective tool of the workers’ movement, with our ability to shut down business as usual by withholding our labor!

The current Tentative Agreement on the contract doesn’t even come close to this, which is why BFN is a part of a growing movement to vote down the sell-out offer and fight for a stronger contract.

Vote NO On This Insulting TA!

Carriers have been working nearly two years without a new contract since the last one expired. Yet this TA with its 1.3% raises is a slap in the face for the workforce that never stopped working during COVID and whose wages have been eaten by inflation. It doesn’t offer a living wage, it preserves mandatory overtime, and it would introduce a speedup by reducing fixed office time, at the cost of full-time jobs! 

BFN has played a leading role in mobilizing a national Vote NO campaign on the current TA. We’re getting a big echo among carriers; at least 51 union branches have passed “Vote No” resolutions expressing their disgust with this rotten deal! Rank-and-file workers across the US have been sending in pictures of them and their coworkers holding “Vote No” signs. Meanwhile, our national president, Brian Renfroe, is pushing hard for a “yes” vote. He and his six figure salary rests on keeping things the same in the NALC. 

We wouldn’t be staring down a rotten TA if we had the right to strike, and our coworkers know it. We need an active, public campaign with rank and file mobilization to fight for and win the right to strike for all federal workers! This will not be the last battle with the bosses, and we need to prepare the ground for us to stand on and fight more confidently, more united. That means voting NO on this TA and staying active in the union to link up with the reform effort to fundamentally restore our union to a dynamic fighting tool for workers aiming to win more. 

Join Build A Fighting NALC & Transform Our Union!

BFN is made up of letter carriers actively organizing to build rank and file leadership in our union. We’re also gaining momentum, with hundreds of workers regularly attending virtual national meetings to discuss key issues facing the post office. These meetings include political discussions where members can openly discuss issues and how we can collectively take action to address them. Discussions have opened up about how to defend our trans coworkers and why it is core to being a union that we defend against all attacks on workers!The union is more than our elected leadership, it’s all of us, carriers organized across the nation. Building a fighting NALC means transforming our union from top to bottom. If you’re ready to get involved in BFN, sign up on our website!