Thread: Post Office to Cut 7,500 Jobs

MARCH 24, 2011, 2:32 P.M. ET.

Post Office to Cut 7,500 Jobs

By JENNIFER LEVITZ

Struggling with record losses, the United States Postal Service will cut 7,500 managers and close seven district offices, officials said.

The cuts, which include postmasters, supervisors and other administrators, will come as part of the agency's previously disclosed plan to close as many as 2,000 post offices and consolidate regional mail-processing centers over the next 12 months.

District offices will close in Columbus, Ohio; Albuquerque, N.M.; Billings, Mt.; Macon, Ga.; Providence, R.I.; Troy, Mich.; and Carol Stream, Ill., the Postal Service said. The agency hasn't identified post offices that will close but has said that many will be in rural areas where they are losing money and residents may have access to services in another town.

The Postal Service is struggling with declining mail volume and retiree health-benefit costs, according to U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.

"It's critical that we adjust our workforce to match America's changing communication trends as mail volumes continue to decline," he said in a statement. "At every step and with every change, our focus remains on our customers and continuing to provide outstanding customer service."

Still, postmasters play important roles, particularly in smaller communities, said the National League of Postmasters of the United States.

"Especially in rural areas, the post office is the only face of the federal government in the community" and the postmaster is "an integral part" of daily life, John Jameson, III, executive vice president of the group, said in an interview.

"In the very smallest offices, in most cases they are the only employee, so they are actually interacting with customers every single day," he said.

Slashing managers is the latest attempt by the Postal Service to right itself after losses of $8.5 billion in fiscal 2010; the agency projects it will lose $6.4 billion this year.

The Postal Service, an independent government entity supported mostly by postal fees, has had to borrow from the federal government to meet shortfalls and expects to use its $15 billion federal line of credit by the fall.

Since 2007, U.S. law has required the Postal Service to prefund retiree health benefits at $5.5 billion a year—a law the post office is seeking to change.

Mr. Donahoe testified to a congressional subcommittee in early March that the Postal Service "will not survive as a self-financing entity without significant changes to current law."

Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... sNewsForth

I fully expect all but 1st class mail sorting and handling will be outsourced to Mexico, with illegal aliens handling much of it here within the United States.

Trucking isn't all Calderon and Obama discuss.