Job Spectrum

Getting rid of Sat. mail delivery could save the U.S. Postal Service $5.1 bln yearly by 2020, almost all of which would come from lower staff costs, agency officers declared on Monday.In the face of declining mail volume and a ten year, $238 bill budget hole, the Postal Service is proposing to reduce mail delivery days from 6 to 5. The move would eliminate equivalent to forty thousand full time positions, including 26,000 town letter carriers, according to USPS Vice President Sam Pulcrano. The majority of the cuts would come in the first year after Sat. delivery ends, he expounded.

USPS on Tues. To the Postal Regulatory Commission will send its 5 day delivery plan.

Postmaster General John Potter earlier in the month outlined a ten year strategy to chop costs and increase the agency's suppleness to switch its products, services and business practices. As well as the delivery day reduction, the plan contain moderate price rises, associations with shops and a pay as you go system for retiree health benefits, which USPS now prefunds at $5.6 bln yearly.

Pulcrano recounted the biggest class of cuts will comprise the 25,000 town carriers who cover the 6th delivery day to permit other staff a five-day workweek. According to the draft PRC offer, the once a year savings apropos financial 2009 will be $2.2 bln. "

After that, it's much smaller, so far as the impact across the organization, " he announced.
The plan also gets shot of some rustic carrier positions, together with supervisor hours and post office clerk staffing.

According to Pulcrano, about forty five % of postal employees are able to retire between now & 2014, and some positions will be eliminated thru attrition.
USPS also has pliability in its collective negotiating agreements with worker unions to let go a class of non-career, short term employees when automation procedures are established. USPS will rearrange work hours, expand overtime and bring in part time workers to guarantee sufficient staffing, he announced.

Officers related the Postal Regulatory Commission will issue an advisory opinion, but USPS still must seek legislative change. The economic 2010 appropriations law restricts the agency from reducing delivery days, but the language for economic 2011 disposes of that need. Once Congress gives its approval, the Postal Service and shareholders need half a year to modify contracts, info technology systems and transport networks, Pulcrano recounted.

"The earlier we are able to get some relief will have heavy impact on where we finish up in that ten year plan, " he said.