U.S. Postal Service plans to cut 200 sorting center jobs in Springfield by end of year

The date that the processing center will close is not set.

February 22, 2012|by Jay Scherder, KY3 News | jscherder@ky3.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- U.S. Postal Service administrators told employees here that they plan to cut 200 jobs at the regional mail processing center by the end of 2012 and move its operations to a bigger processing center in Kansas City. The exact date is not set.

The Postal Service has been studying whether to move mail processing from here to Kansas City to save money since last September. Three "retail" centers, or post offices, in the city will not close. Those centers employ about 50 people.

The Postal Service says it will not close any processing center around the country until at least May 15 at the request of Congressional representatives who protested the plan to close facilities. The USPS says it will close processing centers in two waves, and the center in Springfield will be part of the second wave.

USPS administrators say processing center employees who lose their jobs here would be eligible to transfer to jobs in other cities, but only if there were openings in those cities caused by retirements or resignations.

Employees on the day shift at the processing center in Springfield were not told of the closing decision before they left work on Wednesday afternoon. Administrators told leaders of the two unions here that represent Postal Service workers about 5 p.m. Administrators then scheduled five meetings over the next eight hours for processing center workers on the overnight shift.

Once the consolidation is made, letters and packages mailed from Springfield to addresses in Springfield will go to Kansas City and then return to Springfield to be delivered. It will eliminate next-day deliveries within the city and surrounding areas, except for possibly mailings made at a rural post office that go to another address served by that same post office.

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