FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The United States Postal Service will close a facility in Fayetteville in February 2007, eliminating 189 jobs.The Remote Encoding Center opened as a temporary site in 1994. At the facility, workers hand-read addresses that computers can’t read. However, officials said that improved technology has created mail sorting machines that can read virtually all addresses, eliminating the need for the human help.Postal officials said that because the plant was never intended to be permanent, the workers who will be laid off weren’t considered full-time postal employees. Over 50 regular postal workers will be transferred to other facilities.According to officials, there were 55 similar facilities across the U.S. All of them are now in the process of closing. WRAL-TV

Fayetteville Online reports - The postal service announced the closing of its remote encoding center to its employees on Thursday, said Tony McKinnon Sr. McKinnon is president of Local No. 984 of the American Postal Workers Union. The center’s last day will be March 2.

On Thursday, it announced it will close the centers in Fayetteville and Tampa Bay, Fla. The move should save the postal service $3.2 million in the first year after the closings.

Because the centers were meant to be temporary, the employees did not receive the same job security as the postal service’s traditional workers, Rice said.

The Tampa Bay center has 456 temporary employees and 121 traditional ones. The traditional employees will receive postal jobs that will have salaries that at least match their current jobs at the encoding center.

The temporary employees are on their own.

Related link:

Other USPS REC closures