Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/228318.html
The U.S. Postal Service, which predicts an annual loss of $18.2 billion by 2015, plans to eliminate 5.4 percent of its workforce by closing almost half its mail-processing facilities to decrease costs.
The service plans to shut 223 of its 461 mail-processing plants by February 2013, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a telephone interview on Thursday. The closings will cut about 35,000 jobs, said David Partenheimer, a spokesman.
The service is shutting post offices and seeking congressional approval to end Saturday mail delivery as more people use the Internet to correspond and pay bills. Mail volume fell 6 percent in the quarter ended Dec. 31 and may drop 14 percent by 2016, led by declines in first-class mail, the most profitable, the Washington-based service said this month. Bloomberg
HIGHLIGHTS
The labor cuts will occur through attrition, said David Partenheimer, a spokesman. The service will eliminate about 30,000 full-time jobs with benefits. It will cut about 5,000 temporary positions, which include contract and part-time work and don't carry full benefits. sfgate.com
The Postal Service is in debt due to declining first-class mail volumes and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement healthcare benefits. moneycnn.com
Nearly every state is impacted and would lose a mail processing plant, according to the Postal Service list, which includes 14 in California, 12 in New York and 9 in Illinois. moneycnn.com
Mail processing plants closures can yield a particularly devastating toll on communities. A plant in Tulsa, Okla., slated to be consolidated, employs nearly 600 employees. moneycnn.com
The consolidations will affect four processing centers in Maryland: Cumberland, Easton, Gaithersburg and Waldorf. The Virginia sites are Lynchburg, Norfolk and Roanoke. washingtonpost.com
The cutbacks also mean the Postal Service would no longer be able to guarantee overnight delivery of some first-class mail. washingtonpost.com
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