The Nebraska State Association of Letter Carriers convened in Grand Island on Friday.
The group says they're being squeezed by falling mail volume on one hand, and on the other, by a Congressional mandate to fund health care for retirees a full seventy-five years into the future.
They maintain that Congress doesn't adhere to such a standard, and that the budgetary pressure causes cutbacks that aren't fair to letter carriers or their customers.
Association president Kevin Hevelone: "It's health care for future retirees and 75 years out -- so right now we put 5 billion dollars for someone who may not be born yet and people in rural America are being told their going to lose their post office and that's not fair to the American people. We successfully downsized the postal service and we can be leaner and meaner but we can't do that and continue to pre-fund. Congress doesn't do that to fund their own future healthcare benefits."
The Postal Service is the second largest civilian employer in the country.
The pre-funding of postal workers' retirement health care is required by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.
