Post office plans 35,000 job cuts
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WASHINGTON - With no financial relief in sight, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with planned cuts to more than 260 mail processing centers around the nation, part of a billion-dollar cost-cutting effort that will slow delivery of first-class mail.
In a statement Thursday, the cash-strapped agency said it had completed a review of closings to mail processing centers it had proposed last fall. Based on community input and other factors, the post office said, it will move forward with consolidations involving virtually all of the 252 facilities on the list, as well as up to 12 new locations, beginning in mid-May.
Of the 264 facilities, roughly 41 won't be closed or consolidated right away as the post office conducts additional reviews.
Mail processing centers proposed for consolidation or closure
Watch: Post Office cutbacks could slow mail delivery
The consolidations are expected to result in a loss of roughly 35,000 jobs, which the post office hopes to achieve mainly through attrition. The agency described the move as a necessary cost-saving measure because of declining mail volume as people and businesses continue switching to the Internet in place of letters and paper bills.
The 12 locations added to the list include those in Owensboro, Ky.; Washington, Pa.; Cardiss Collins (Chicago), Ill.; Gaylord, Mich.; Staten Island, New York; Mankato, Minn.; Champaign, Ill.; Atlanta, Ga.; Corpus Christi, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Mid-Florida, Fla.; and Butte, Mont.
"The steps we are taking now will put the Postal Service on a strong financial footing for decades to come," the agency said in a statement.
The estimated $3 billion in reductions are part of a wide-ranging effort by the Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress. It is seeking to close or consolidate more than half of its nearly 500 mail processing centers.
Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards for first-class mail that, for the first time in 40 years, will eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.
Last week, the Postal Service warned it will lose as much as $18.2 billion a year by 2015 unless Congress grants it new leeway to eliminate Saturday delivery and raise the price of a postage stamp by as much as 5 cents.
It is asking Congress for permission to make service cuts and reduce annual payments of about $5.5 billion to prefund retiree health benefits. At the request of Congress, the cash-strapped agency agreed to wait until mid-May to begin closures so lawmakers would have time to stabilize its finances first.
But in recent weeks, the Senate and House have stalled as lawmakers differ widely on costs, the level of financial oversight and the prospect of widespread postal closures.
The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, is subject to congressional control on major aspects of its operations. Earlier this month, the Postal Service said its quarterly loss ballooned to $3.3 billion amid declining mail volume and said it could run out of money by October.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is pushing for legislative changes that would stop or delay mass closings of mail processing centers, described the proposed closings as counterproductive. He and 26 other senators recently signed a letter to congressional sponsors of postal legislation seeking to prevent cuts to first-class mail delivery.
"At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution," Sanders said.
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Obama bailed out the automobile companies, thieving banks, Wall Street and mortgage companies.!!
Now the US is TRILLIONS of dollars in debt thanks to Obama and Congress.
At least with the USPS we get what we pay for.!!
Every time Congress pays attention to Post Office issues TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING FOR THAT TIME!
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LOL! I guess we should pay congress for just sitting around. Your statement is nuts.
Unions that represent postal workers have no right to strike, and therefore have little effect on salaries or benefits. They exist primarily to assist workers in grievance arbitration, and to protect workers from the Postal Inspection Service.
If the Postal Service were to fold, you could probably still send a letter via UPS or FedEx, but you would have to shell out five bucks (or more) to do it.
The Postal Service is a self-funding, but its workers draw benefits from the federal government's health-care, retirement and workers' compensation funds - payments totaling billions of dollars annually, TAX PAYER MONEY.
As for your union claim; Ever heard of a USPS employee getting fired? NOT likely. The union's demands for retirement are so stringent, it is the supreme cause for the $8.5 Billion loss just last year. The USPS is required to pay for the retirement of a FUTURE employees, those NOT yet born. It is a "pre-fund," for future retirees, but costs the USPS over $5 billion a year.
Face it, the USPS, like every other unionized organization is inexcusably inefficient. Fax it, email it or post it.
I am all for working Americans to make a good living, but the other aspect that is left out of this article is the huge overhead the US Postal Service carries in high pay and huge retirement benefits to it's workers. This is why that agency could not handle a reduction of volume of mail - the overhead is way too large. The US Postal Service is grossly mismanaged. This is exactly why the auto industry got in trouble and demanded stupid bailouts from the American people.
For less than 50 cents the post office will come to your home, pick up a letter and mail it more than 3200 miles from coast to coast. It's a service. Not a business. Name one private company that will offer you that kind of service for so little.
Call your representatives and demand the republican law be repealed.
Whatever happened to seeking out and listening to experts? Too bad that idea got thrown under the PC bus.
Shut it down and go private enterprise.
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Keep Wall Street out of State Pensions. The 1% is evil, the rest who favor their policies are morons who will see this nation looking like France in the year 1720.
Businesses like FedEx, UPS, and Indian casinos are profitable enough to pay expenses and show a profit for the owners. Yet, the government can't run a successful non-profit. In Washington State, they ran the liquor sales business into the ground. Finally got out of it on a referendum that assured the state of not only the tax revenue, but the profits over cost, as well.
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Lies of the predators.
Obama strikes again .....
Post office plans 35,000 job cuts !!!!!!!!!!
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Ha, too much. Otherwise it's the big liberal government wasteful spending and inefficiency.
Maybe United Parcel Service can lobby for government taxpayer subsidy so they can pay their CEO, CFO and investors more money.
So, to solve this problem, we're gonna cut 35,000 jobs, attrition presumably largely by retirement, and quit funding the retirement plan. So, we pay retirees directly as if they are salaried and not via an investment trust. The net effect is we get a lot of retired postal workers that appear on the books to be employees who are paid to do nothing.
Meanwhile, state governments and the feds will spare no effort criminalizing those dirty, abusive employers who underfund their company-sponsored retirement plans.