Postal Workers Ask Pay Increase Above Guidelines: Postal Workers Ask Pay Increase Above Gi
In what is likely to be a key test of President Carter's voluntary program to fight inflation, unions representing 554,000 postal workers yesterday asked for wage increases far above administration guidelines.</br></br>The unions asked for continuation of automatic cost-of-living raises in the current three-year contract plus wage increases of $1,100 in the first year of a proposed two-year contract and $865 in the second year.</br></br>Emmet Andrews, president of the American Postal Workers Union, the largest of four unions negotiating with the Postal Service, said through a spokesman that this amounted to a 14 percent increase in the first year. That is at least twice what the administration wants the postal workers to accept.</br></br>Postal Service spokesman Walter Duka declined to comment on the figures presented in a closed-door session. ÛÏOur approach has been that we are not negotiating in public,Û he said.</br></br>The administration has not set a specific target for a postal wage settlement, but CarterÛªs inflation fighters are hoping for an increase that is ÛÏsubstantiallyÛ under the 8 percent annual boosts they estimate postal workers have received under the contract that expires July 20.