Postal Service cuts to include 13 centers in NY
12:18 PM, Dec. 5, 2011 | Comment
Postmaster General Pat Donahoe leaves the podium after he answers questions about cuts to First Class Mail service during a news conference in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) / AP
ALBANY — The Postal Service is set to announce an estimated $3 billion in reductions that would close roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March, including 13 in New York.
The consolidations to be detailed Monday would typically lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center. Senders could no longer expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities.
The facilities slated to be closed in New York are the customer service mail processing centers in Amsterdam, Binghamton, Glens Falls and Plattsburgh; the surface transfer center in Binghamton; processing and distribution centers in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Newburgh, Flushing and Garden City; an annex in Melville; a logistics and distribution center in Bethpage; and the delivery distribution center in Monsey.
By transferring mail processing to Syracuse, 73 Binghamton jobs would be affected. While the move would create 52 openings in Syracuse, 21 positions would be eliminated entirely.
The U.S. Postal Service will hold a public meeting to discuss the proposal at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 14 in the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel & Conference Center's South Ballroom at 225 Water St.
At a news briefing Monday, postal vice president David Williams said the agency wants to virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day to help avert possible bankruptcy next year.
Williams says the postal service is not “writing off first class mail” but that it must respond to new market realities in which people are turning more to the Internet for email communications and bill payment.
After reaching a peak in 2006, first-class mail volume is now at 78 million. It is projected to drop by roughly half by 2020.
The consolidations to be detailed Monday would typically lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center. Senders could no longer expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities.
The facilities slated to be closed in New York are the customer service mail processing centers in Amsterdam, Binghamton, Glens Falls and Plattsburgh; the surface transfer center in Binghamton; processing and distribution centers in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Newburgh, Flushing and Garden City; an annex in Melville; a logistics and distribution center in Bethpage; and the delivery distribution center in Monsey.
By transferring mail processing to Syracuse, 73 Binghamton jobs would be affected. While the move would create 52 openings in Syracuse, 21 positions would be eliminated entirely.
The U.S. Postal Service will hold a public meeting to discuss the proposal at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 14 in the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel & Conference Center's South Ballroom at 225 Water St.
At a news briefing Monday, postal vice president David Williams said the agency wants to virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day to help avert possible bankruptcy next year.
Williams says the postal service is not “writing off first class mail” but that it must respond to new market realities in which people are turning more to the Internet for email communications and bill payment.
After reaching a peak in 2006, first-class mail volume is now at 78 million. It is projected to drop by roughly half by 2020.
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