This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we've covered all 65 of our affiliates. Next up is the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).
Name of Union: National Association of Letter Carriers
Mission: To unite fraternally all city letter carriers employed by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for their mutual benefit; to obtain and secure rights as employees of the USPS and to strive at all times to promote the safety and the welfare of every member; to strive for the constant improvement of the Postal Service; and for other purposes. NALC is a single-craft union and is the sole collective bargaining agent for city letter carriers.
Current Leadership of Union: Brian Renfroe serves as president of NALC. Renfroe is a second-generation letter carrier who began his career in 2004 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he joined NALC as a member of Hattiesburg Branch 938. He began working at NALC headquarters in 2011, where he eventually served as director of city delivery and executive vice president before being elected president in 2022.
Paul Barner serves as executive vice president.
Number of Members: 295,000
Members Work as: City letter carriers
Industries Represented: The U.S. Postal Service
History: In 1794, as the new U.S. Constitution was being implemented, Congress appointed the first letter carriers. By the time of the Civil War, free delivery of city mail was established. In 1888, letter carriers successfully concluded a campaign for the eight-hour workday, and the following year, they came together in Milwaukee to form the National Association of Letter Carriers.
The first NALC convention took place in Boston in 1890, with more than 50 branches representing 4,600 letter carriers. In 1905, the National Ladies Auxiliary was founded, allowing women to participate in the union for the first time. In the early 1900s, postal workers won the right to organize and affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Women were first allowed to work as temporary letter carriers as many men left to fight in World War I.
In the postwar years, NALC has focused on wages and benefits for its members. In 1950, NALC began its health benefit plan, and in 1964, the Nalcrest retirement community for retired letter carriers opened in Florida. The Great Postal Strike of 1970, which led to the Postal Reorganization Act, brought collective bargaining rights to letter carriers and other postal employees. In recent decades, NALC has focused in part on legislation and on seeking commonsense and regulatory reform. The union led efforts to enact the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, which repealed the unfair 2006 congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits decades in advance. Now, NALC continues to focus on legislation that will protect letter carriers from on-the-job crime, ensure a fair and on-time retirement, guarantee the Postal Service remains a public, independent agency and commonsense solutions to keep the Postal Service financially viable for years to come. NALC continues to regularly negotiate national agreements between letter carriers and the USPS while working to protect the safety, jobs and well-being of letter carriers. Read Carriers in a Common Cause, the official history of NALC.
Current Campaigns: NALC stays in regular touch with its members through The Postal Record, the monthly membership magazine; the semi-regular NALC Bulletin; and the quarterly NALC Activist for shop stewards and branch leaders. The union also sends out regular notifications to members via the NALC Member App for smartphones. NALC members have access to a number of members-only benefits, such as the Mutual Benefit Association insurance company and the letter carrier retirement community known as Nalcrest. Approximately 30% of letter carriers are veterans, with more than 20,000 members joining NALC’s Veterans Group.
In recent years, NALC branches have hosted more than a dozen rallies to declare “Enough is Enough!” These events bring public awareness and local media attention to the increase in violent crimes committed against letter carriers on the job while calling on Congress to pass the Protect Our Letter Carriers Act (H.R. 1065/S. 463).
On March 23, 2025, NALC held more than 250 rallies nationwide to say “Hands off USPS!” These events reinforced the power of a strong, public Postal Service and the universal service obligation letter carriers uphold for every American every day.
Community Efforts: The NALC Disaster Relief Foundation helps letter carriers in need after disasters. The Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, held the second Saturday each May, is the largest one-day food drive in the country. Letter Carrier Heroes recognizes the acts of bravery and compassion that letter carriers engage in on a daily basis. NALC’s official charity is the Muscular Dystrophy Association, with letter carriers raising funds to Deliver the Cure.