NAPUS National President Bob Rapoza called Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe this morning in response to a March 24, 2011 article in the Washington Post, which stated the Postal Service planned to “eliminate the jobs of thousands of postmasters and supervisors, many through layoffs.” Postmaster General Donahoe told President Rapoza that he could tell Postmasters that “there will be no layoffs for Postmasters.”

The Washington Post article, which quoted postal officials about the Postal Service’s reorganization, generated many calls and emails to the NAPUS national office concerning the possibility of layoffs for Postmasters. Early this morning, the NAPUS President placed a call to the PMG, who later returned the call to Rapoza telling him that Postmasters will not be laid off.

The NAPUS national office has also been inundated with calls and emails, asking why Postmasters weren’t included in the Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) and incentive offers that were announced for USPS Headquarters, Area and District EAS Non-Bargaining employees. The reason Postmasters were not included in the VER and incentive offers is because post offices weren’t eliminated in the recent downsizing effort, thus Postmasters were not impacted employees.

Details of the recent reorganization plans include reductions to the following areas;

USPS is eliminating seven (7) districts as follows:

1. Big Sky is going to the Dakotas District
2. Southeast New England is going to Greater Boston and Connecticut Valley
3. South Georgia is going to North Florida, except for the 321 zip code which is going to the Sun Coast District
4. Southeast Michigan is going to the Detroit District
5. Northern Illinois is going to be divided into three (3) districts:
1. Lakeland – Part of Lakeland is going to Greater Michigan
2. Central Illinois
3. Gateway
6. Albuquerque is going to the Arizona District
7. 7. Columbus is going to the Cincinnati District, except a couple of zip codes which are going to Northern, OH

Area positions (originally 1,123) are being reduced by 27.3% which equates to a job loss of 306 positions leaving a total of 817 area positions.
District positions (originally 5,791) are being reduced by 24.92% which equates to a reduction of 1,443 jobs, leaving a total of 4,348 district positions.

That is a total of 1,749 jobs down from the previous 6,914

While post offices have not been specifically targeted for closing during this initial downsizing effort, plans to close post offices are part of the overall reorganization process. NAPUS will continue to keep you informed on any information that Postal Headquarters provides concerning planned closings of post offices. The PMG reiterated his commitment to continue open communications with NAPUS, with “no hidden agenda.” He told President Bob Rapoza that he could quote him that “there will be no layoffs for Postmasters.”

Charlie Moser

March 25, 2011