(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) - Deemed an essential service, National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)-represented Mail Carriers are working - and are being paid, during the Federal Shutdown. But that’s not stopping the Union for doing all it can to support its fellow Brother and Sister Federal Employees who are not.

“We are working, ‘despite’ the shutdown ‘and we are – obviously, standing with our fellow Federal Workers from so many departments,’ including the IRS, Social Security and the State Department. Our Members ‘deliver an essential’ service, including delivering medications, that people ‘rely on, especially those who live in our rural’ communities. This shutdown is ‘unconscionable that it is extending for such a long period of time.’ Locally, we are taking monetary collections ‘to help our fellow’ Federal Workers,” NALC Branch 3 President David Grosskopf, Jr. tells WNYLaborToday.com.

Grosskopf was in Orlando, Florida over the weekend for a NALC Committee of Presidents meeting where NALC Presidents discussed what NALC could further do to assist those Federal Workers who are not being paid as the shutdown marches on without an end in sight.

While the United States Postal Service (USPS) itself has had a dark cloud hanging over it during the past several years with talk of privatizing the USPS and closing regional distribution centers (which Branch 3 had beaten back not once, but twice in recent years), Grosskopf said he was “extremely proud” of the fact that U.S. Congressman Tim Kennedy (New York- 26th District) of Buffalo has become the first Congressional Representative in the Nation to support all five of the NALC's top Legislative Agenda Bills in the 119th Congress.

Those Bills include: H. Res. 70 Anti-Privatization Resolution 4/28/25; H.R. 1065 Protect our Letter Carriers Act 2/24/25; H.R. 1522 Federal Retirement Fairness Act 10/6/25; H.R. 3170 Improving Access to Workers Compensation for Injured Federal Employees Act 6/12/25; and H.R. 3011 USPS Shipping Equity Act 10/24/25.

NALC Branch 3 was also able to get support for two of its Bills from Republican Western New York Congressman Nick Langworth (New York-23rd District0, who signed onto H.R. 1065 Protect our Letter Carriers Act 5/24/25 and H.R. 1522 Federal Retirement Fairness Act 4/29/25

Grosskopf thanked Branch # 3 Buffalo/Western New York Legislative Chairman Greg Smith and New York State Association of Letter Carriers (NYSALC) President George Mangold - as well as others, “for a team effort to make sure NALC Members get the legislative protections they deserve.”

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For More On NALC Branch 3, Read: Looking At NALC Branch 3’s ‘Phenomenal’ 2024, So Far: Playing A Major Role In Saving Buffalo’s USPS Processing Facility To Its Involvement In Making Its National Union Better To Its Local Letter Carriers Being Recognized For Giving Back Locally - WNY Labor Today: Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, Bringing You Labor News From Across The Nation, New York State & Western New York