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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
 Posted - 11/11/2008 : 07:58:04
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Postal Service Looks To Cut 40,000 Jobs In First Layoff In History
Updated: Nov 7, 2008 09:10 PM
By Jonathan McCall
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - "We lost 2 billion dollars and like any other business we have to stay afloat." And to keep from sinking, the United States Postal Service is considering cutting thousands of jobs nationwide. Lavelle Pepper with the post office in Shreveport says they too are feeling the affects of the same disease hitting the country... a struggling economy. "We employ about 685,000 people. If we do layoffs it would include clerks, carriers, mail handlers across all crafts."
Pepper says the postal service is looking to eliminate 40,000 jobs nationwide. There's not an exact number on how many of those could be from the Ark-La-Tex. Pepper says workers who are not part of union with six or less years of service would likely be the first on the chopping block. "We've identified 16 thousand people that are not covered under contract. We'll see what those numbers add up to."
The postal service is also offering early retirement packages to workers over the age of 50 who have more than 20 years on the job. But according to pepper it may not be enough. "The preliminary numbers look like it's not going to be enough and we may have to do something else." But despite what may happen, Pepper says customers will not feel the pain they're going through. "The general public when it takes place won't se any decrease in service.. They largely won't know about it."
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Kurr
1000+ Penny Miser Member
2906 Posts |
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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2008 : 09:52:16
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a few more points to add to the story-
-The post office used to be able to raise the price of stamps to pay for its costs, but a federal law restricts the increase in stamp prices to the rate of inflation, official inflation.
Since real life inflation is higher than official inflation the post office is feeling the pinch in real life inflation costs (electricity, fuel, rents, not all post offices are owned by the government)
This is a case of the government fiddling with inflation numbers to make things look good at the detriment of a government agency. It kind of serves the government right in a way.
-With the banks, utilities and credit card companies offering electronic payment and with the IRS offering electronic filing this has meant a large decline in post office mailings and revenue. Since these changes didn't happen overnight and since the bureaucracy at the post office (like everywhere else) overlooked the changes coming no one in the past 5-10 years thought there would be a problem with reduced mailing-
until there was one.
-As a side note, DHL, the package shipping company is pulling out of the US market. DHL didn't offer insurance for their packages so I never used them, I guess as long as the Post Office offers insured mailing they will have one mailing segment to keep them going. |
Edited by - pencilvanian on 11/11/2008 09:56:10 |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2008 : 19:33:43
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| I am guessing that the major factor is that shipping volume is way, way down. If I am right, UPS should be announcing some major cuts soon. |
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jadedragon
Administrator
Canada
3788 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2008 : 03:44:04
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Seems like the USPS could save 1/6th of thier labor costs by just cutting Saturday mail delivery. My small USPS office is closed Saturday anyway. We have not had weekend mail delivery in Canada for a long time and Canada survives just fine.
e-delivery has got to be hurting the USPS, and I'm guessing businesses will be reducing junk mail efforts to save costs. Heck just the reduction in credit card offers I read about this week is enough to justify 40,000 job cuts at the USPS |
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