the two parties ended in an impasse, and went into third party arbitration. Thus, the rural craft was operating without a contract when Jeanette became President. On July 3, 2012, arbitrator Jack Clarke imposed a new contract upon the NRLCA & USPS that ran through 2015. Concessions by the NRLCA in the new contract mirrored concessions made by the American Postal Workers Union a year earlier. They included a two-year wage freeze, a two-tiered wage structure and increased health care costs (from 19% to 24%). Substitute rural carriers and RCAs hired under the new contract faced a twenty percent cut in pay with no cost-of-living increases. New hire pay was cut from $19.45 to $15.56 per hour. Despite these concessions, Direct of Labor Relations Joey Johnson voted with the USPS arbitrator to accept the contract. The first agreement negotiated with the USPS under Jeanette's presidency came in 2016. It includes wage increases for rural carriers for each of the three years it runs, as well as cost of living adjustments, and an increase in equipment maintenance allowance. It is also the first rural carrier contract to grant bereavement leave for employees taking time off for the death of a family member. Personal life Jeanette & her husband, Larry, were married in 1970. They have one son, Andy, and one grandson, Bobby. References Living people American trade union leaders Postal officials Year of birth missing (living people)