USPS Closing Six Districts, Eliminating 1,400 EAS Positions in 2009

Organizational Changes – March 20, 2009

• The Postal Service is closing 6 of the 80 district offices, eliminating 521 positions across the country and offering early retirement to nearly 150,000 employees nationwide (excluding Electronic Technicians, MPE Maintenance Mechanics, Part-time Postmasters)

• For the remaining 74 districts across the country, there will be a 15% reduction in administrative staffing.

• More than 1400 mail processing management positions are also being eliminated in nearly 400 facilities around the country.

District Closings

• Massachusetts District – 116 impacted employees (105 are eligible to retire)
Boston District and the Connecticut District (Hartford CT) will assume the
operations.

• New Hampshire/Vermont District – 75 impacted employees (68 eligible to retire)
Northern New England District (Portland ME) will assume operations.

• Erie District – 63 impacted employees (44 eligible to retire)
Western Pennsylvania District (Pittsburgh PA) will assume operations.

• Central Florida District – 104 impacted employees (79 eligible to retire)
South Florida District (Miami FL) and Suncoast District (Tampa FL) will
assume operations.

• Spokane District – 71 impacted employees (52 eligible to retire)
Seattle District and the Salt Lake City District will assume operations.

• Central New Jersey District – 92 impacted employees (63 eligible to retire)
Northern New Jersey District (Newark NJ) and the South Jersey District
(Bellmawr NJ) will assume operations.

It will take approximately 5 months to close down the functions performed at the impacted districts. We expect this to be finalized by the end of August 2009.

Impacted employees will be given 5 months notice to look for a placement within the Postal Service. If unable to do so, the employee will be given a RIF notice on June 24, 2009. Once the RIF notice is received, the employee then has 60 days before their employment status with the Postal Service will end on August 28, 2009.

Function 1 – EAS positions

In excess of 1400 EAS positions in more than 400 facilities will be eliminated in mail processing operations.

These positions are being eliminated based on a mathematical computation designed to readjust our management-to-craft employee ratio to factor in the thousands of craft employees who have left the Postal Service in the last several years.

An employee who is impacted by this decision will be given 4 month’s notice to look for placement within the Postal Service. If they are unable to do so, the employee will be given a Specific RIF notice on May 27, 2009. Once the RIF notice is received, the employee has 60 days before their employment status with the Postal Service will end on July 31, 2009.

Additional information on the elimination of these positions will be provided.

USPS ANNOUNCES ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE CLOSINGS, EARLY RETIREMENT OFFER AND STAFFING REDUCTIONS

Today the Postal Service has announced it will close six of its 80 district offices. USPS is also eliminating positions across the country and offering another round of voluntary early retirements. These actions are expected to save the Postal Service more than $100 million annually.

The six offices closing — located in Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington State — house administrative functions and will not adversely affect customer service, mail delivery, Post Office operations or ZIP Codes. The functions of these offices will be assumed by 10 surrounding districts.

The Postal Service’s districts are being re-aligned as follows:

The Boston and Connecticut districts will assume the operations of the Massachusetts District.

The Northern New England (formerly Maine) District will assume the operations of the New Hampshire/Vermont District.

The Western Pennsylvania (formerly Pittsburgh) District will assume the operations of the Erie District.

The South Florida and Suncoast districts will assume the operations of the Central Florida District.

The Seattle and Salt Lake City districts will assume the operations of the Spokane District.

The Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey districts will assume the operations of the Central Jersey District.

USPS will reduce administrative staff positions at the district level nationwide by 15 percent. In addition, more than 1,400 mail processing supervisor and management positions at nearly 400 facilities around the country will be eliminated, and nearly 150,000 employees nationwide are being given the opportunity to take an early retirement as part of a voluntary early retirement (VER) program. Managers are notifying employees who are impacted by these decisions. The Postal Service will send letters notifying VER-eligible employees starting April 6, 2009.

In the past year, the Postal Service has taken very aggressive cost-cutting actions, including:

Cutting 50 million workhours;

Halting construction of new postal facilities;

Negotiating an agreement with the National Association of Letter Carriers that adjusts letter carrier routes to reflect diminished volume;

Freezing salaries of all Postal Service officers and executives;

Instituting a nationwide hiring freeze;

Reducing authorized staffing levels at postal headquarters and area offices by at least 15 percent;

Selling unused and under-utilized postal facilities;

Adjusting Post Office hours to better reflect customer use; and,

Consolidating mail processing operations.

Additional information — and questions and answers — about all of these new changes can be found under the Hot Topics section on Blue. VER information can be found under the Hot Topics section on LiteBlue.

Note: Postmasters and managers, click this link to print a stand-up talk that should be read to all employees.

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