The chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Tom Carper, D-Del., said he was concerned about the plans to close the additional plants and called on Congress to proceed with postal reform legislation this summer.
The committee reported out a bipartisan postal reform bill earlier this year on a 9-1 vote but it has yet to reach the floor. Disagreement remains over moving USPS to a five-day delivery schedule and whether and how to give USPS more flexibility to operate as a business, as well as to reduce its retirement and healthcare costs. The bill also would keep those 82 plants open for another two years.
“Given the U.S. Postal Service’s ongoing financial difficulties, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Postmaster General is moving forward with additional cost-cutting measures using the limited tools at his disposal,” Carper said. “Closing more mail processing centers will only make these existing problems worse and hurt the Postal Service’s efforts to generate new mail volume and remain competitive in the growing package delivery market.”
Management meanwhile is using another tool at its disposal: downsizing. The Postal Service is offering buyouts and early-outs to over 3,000 employees ahead of an expected reduction-in-force this January. Employees have until August 18 to take up USPS on the $10,000 offer, which would be paid out December 5. Those employees would need to be gone by the end of September.
