Postal Service Shutting Down Hundreds of Mail Plants
Bloomberg—- The U.S. Postal Service, which last week backed off plans to close hundreds of rural post offices, will stick with its proposal to cut costs by shutting mail- processing plants, saving $1.2 billion annually.
The service, after a loss of $3.2 billion in the quarter ended March 31 and predicting it will temporarily run out of cash in October, intends to close about 120 plants in the next year, two people familiar with the plan said. They wouldn’t be named because the announcement hasn’t been made public.
The service has forecast a $9.1 billion loss for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and had said it might shut as many as 223 of its 461 processing plants to consolidate operations in fewer places as mail volume declines. Lawmakers including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, have asked the service to keep the plants open, including one that employs 250 people in his state.
“It would severely degrade service to the American people,” said Sally Davidow, a spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union, who hasn’t been briefed on specifics of the plan. “It also would disregard requests by numerous members of Congress that the USPS extend the moratorium on plant and post office closures until postal reform is enacted.”
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