Does the U.S. Postal Service Have Too Many City Carrier Assistants, and at What Cost?

The U.S. Postal Service had 3,300 more CCAs in April than allowed in its labor contract with the National Association of Letter Carriers, a report USPS issued last week indicated.

The 2011 contract that created the non-career position capped the number of CCAs in each district at 15 percent of the total number of full-time career city carriers—plus another 8,000 nationwide to allow "flexible windows which may be necessary to develop and provide new products and services."

The report shows that USPS had 164,582 City Carriers on its rolls in April. Adding 15 percent of that number plus another 8,000 yields an apparent cap of 32,687 CCAs. But the same report says the Postal Service had 36,074 CCAs.