U.S. Postal Service May Cut 20,000 Jobs
The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday it plans to cut up to 20,000 jobs this year, citing disappointing financial figures for the first quarter of the 2002 fiscal year.
The cuts come on top of 11,600 positions cut last year when the postal service lost $1.7 billion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2001.
Postal officials have struck a deal with major customers to raise package rates by 8 percent as early as June 30 in an effort to shore up finances rocked by the weak economy, the Sept. 11 hijack attacks and the discovery of mail tainted by anthrax.
The price of a regular first class stamp will also rise to 37 cents from 34 cents if the increases are approved by the independent Postal Rate Commission.
Governors of the U.S. Postal Service were told at their monthly meeting, held Monday and Tuesday, that the service recorded $108 million in net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2002, a figure that was $521 million under projections.
Richard Strasser, the postal service’s chief financial officer, largely blamed revenues hurt by declining commercial, standard and express mail, “due to the softening in the advertising market.”
“We anticipate shedding another 10-to-15 thousand career employees in the remainder of the year,” Strasser said. Already 5,500 jobs have been shed in fiscal 2002.
“The preponderance of them will be in processing, delivery and administration in the fields,” Strasser later told Reuters.
The postal service said it still needs $5 billion in help from Congress to cover lost revenues following the Sept. 11 attacks by hijacked airliners and the cost of cleaning up anthrax spores and purchasing mail-sanitizing equipment.
The postal service also said it is planning to issue a Sept. 11 “hero” stamp later this year.
Costing 45 cents, the money received in excess of the first class mail rate will be sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid the families of emergency service workers killed or injured in the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center.
A design should be selected in the next few weeks, officials said.
Washington Post
