Postal Service Looks To Cut 40,000 Jobs In First Layoff In History

Posted: Oct 27, 2008 06:56 PM EDT

Updated: Nov 8, 2008 12:10 AM EST


By Jonathan McCall - bio | email

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - "We lost 2 billion dollars and like any other business we have to stay afloat." And to keep from sinking, the United States Postal Service is considering cutting thousands of jobs nationwide. Lavelle Pepper with the post office in Shreveport says they too are feeling the affects of the same disease hitting the country... a struggling economy. "We employ about 685,000 people. If we do layoffs it would include clerks, carriers, mail handlers across all crafts."

Pepper says the postal service is looking to eliminate 40,000 jobs nationwide. There's not an exact number on how many of those could be from the Ark-La-Tex. Pepper says workers who are not part of union with six or less years of service would likely be the first on the chopping block. "We've identified 16 thousand people that are not covered under contract. We'll see what those numbers add up to."

The postal service is also offering early retirement packages to workers over the age of 50 who have more than 20 years on the job. But according to pepper it may not be enough. "The preliminary numbers look like it's not going to be enough and we may have to do something else." But despite what may happen, Pepper says customers will not feel the pain they're going through. "The general public when it takes place won't se any decrease in service.. They largely won't know about it."





Thomas
Monday, November 10, 2008The Postal Service that I worked for for 35 years until 2005 was managed for the benefit of Managers. They didn't care about customers or employees, just about giving themselves ever higher paying positions.
I worked in a small office of about 40 routes. There was a Manager, 3 supervisors and fill ins for days off plus special management that show up regularly doing produtive functions like looking for rubber bands left in the truck.
In the office I worked in the Supervisors would take turns staying in the office to answer calls and what not. The others would go do personal business and return a half hour before carriers.
If a craft employee complained of a superior remodeling his home, or out at Motel 6 with another Manager or surfing porno sites on the postal computer, you may get a visit a Postal Inspector, the police force for the Postal Service. They do their best to protect management.
The Postal Service isn't a business and it isn't run as one.
I didn't see anywhere in the article that there would be a cut in supervisory personnel or a plan to cut layers of unecessary management. They won't go there other than cosmetic.
The problem for the Postal Service isn't the economic downturn it is the Postal Service itself.
It isn't structured to respond to something it has never faced before, competion. The Internet.


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